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ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 


L.  W.  ROGERS 


LOS  ANGELES 

THEOSOPHICAL  BOOK  CONCERN 

1917 


Copyright 

By 

L.  W.  Rogers 

1917 


PREFACE 

To  comprehend  the  significance  of  great  world 
changes,  before  Time  has  fully  done  his  work,  is 
difficult.  While  mighty  events  are  still  in  their 
formative  period  the  future  is  obscure.  But  our  in- 
ability to  outline  the  future  cannot  blind  us  to  the 
unmistakable  trend  of  the  evolutionary  forces  at 
work.  One  thing  that  is  clear  is  that  our  boasted 
Christian  civilization  is  the  theater  in  which  has  been 
staged  the  most  un-Christian  war  of  recorded  history 
and  in  which  human  atrocity  has  reached  a  point  that 
leaves  us  vaguely  groping  for  a  rational  explanation 
of  it.  Another  obvious  fact  is  that  the  more  than 
twenty  nations  involved  have  been  forced  into 
measures  and  methods  before  unknown  and  which 
wholly  transform  the  recognized  function  and  powers 
of  governments.  With  these  startling  facts  of  re- 
ligious and  political  significance  before  us  thoughtful 
people  are  beginning  to  ask  if  we  are  not  upon  the 
threshold  of  a  complete  breaking  down  of  modern 
civilization  and  the  birth  of  a  new  order  of  things,  in 
which  direct  government  by  the  people  throughout 
the  entire  world  will  be  coincident  with  the  rise  of  a 
universal  religion  based  on  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

In  such  a  time  any  contribution  to  current  litera- 
ture that  will  help  to  clear  the  ground  of  misconcep- 
tions and  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  those  interested 


3G9552 


• 


ELEMENTARY   THEOSOPHY 


in  such  things,  that  set  of  fundamental  natural  truths 
known  as  theosophy,  may  perhaps  be  helpful. 
Whether  or  not  the  world  is  about  to  recast  its  ethical 
code  there  can  at  least  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  eagerly 
seeking  reliable  evidence  that  we  live  after  bodily 
death  and  that  it  will  welcome  a  hypothesis  of  immor- 
tality that  is  inherently  reasonable  and  therefore  sat- 
isfies the  intellect  as  well  as  the  heart.  Those  who 
are  dissatisfied  with  the  old  answers  to  the  riddle  of 
existence  and  demand  that  Faith  and  Reason  shall 
walk  hand  in  hand,  may  find  in  the  following  pages 
some  explanation  of  the  puzzling  things  in  life — an 
explanation  that  disregards  neither  the  intuitions  of 
religion  nor  the  facts  of  science. 

Of  course  no  pretention  is  made  of  fully  covering 
the  ground.  The  book  is  a  student's  presentation  of 
some  of  the  phases  of  theosophy  as  he  understands 
them.  They  are  presented  with  no  authority  what- 
ever, and  are  merely  an  attempt  to  discuss  in  simple 
language  some  of  the  fundamental  truths  about  the 
human  being.  No  claim  is  made  to  originality  but 
it  is  hoped  that  by  putting  the  old  truths  in  a  some- 
what different  way,  with  new  illustrations  and  argu- 
ments, they  may  perhaps  be  seen  from  a  new  view- 
point. The  intention  has  been  to  present  elementary 
theosophy  simply  and  clearly  and  in  the  language 
familiar  to  the  ordinary  newspaper  reader.-  All  tech- 
nical terms  and  expressions  have  been  avoided  and 
the  reader  will  not  find  a  single  foreign  word  in  the 
book.  L.  W.  R. 


CONTENTS 


I.  Theosophy 9 

II.  The  Immanence  of  God 15 

III.  The  Evolution  of  the  Soul 23 

IV.  Life  After  Bodily  Death 29 

V.  The  Evolutionary   Field 43 

VI.  The  Mechanism' of  Consciousness 49 

VII.  Death 59 

VIII.  The  Astral  World 69 

IX.  Rebirth  :  Its  Reasonableness 103 

X.  Rebirth  :  Its  Justice 135 

XL  Rebirth:    Its   Necessity 153 

XII.  Why  We  do  not  Remember 167 

XIII.  Vicarious  Atonement 181 

XIV.  The  Forces  We  Generate 187 

XV.  SUPERPH YSICAL    EVOLUTION 205 


CHAPTER  I. 
THEOSOPHY 

Rediscovery  is  one  of  the  methods  of  progress. 
Very  much  that  we  believe  to  be  original  with  us  at 
the  time  of  its  discovery  or  invention  proves  in  time 
to  have  been  known  to  earlier  civilizations.  The 
elevator,  or  lift,  is  a  very  modern  invention  and  we 
supposed  it  to  be  a  natural  development  of  our  civili- 
zation, with  its  intensive  characteristics,  until  an  anti- 
quarian startled  us  with  the  announcement  that  it  was 
used  in  Rome  over  two  thousand  years  ago;  not,  of 
course,  as  we  use  it,  but  for  the  same  purpose,  and 
involving  the  same  principles.  A  half  century  ago 
our  scientific  men  were  enthusiastic  over  the  truths 
of  evolution  that  were  being  discovered  and  placed 
before  western  civilization.  But  as  we  learn  more 
and  more  of  the  thought  and  intellectual  life  of  the 
Orient  it  becomes  clear  that  the  idea  of  evolution  per- 
meated that  part  of  the  world  centuries  ago.  Even 
the  most  recent  and  startling  scientific  discoveries 
occasionally  serve  to  prove  that  what  we  supposed  to 
be  the  fantastic  beliefs  of  the  ancients  were  really 
truths  of  nature  that  we  were  not  yet  able  to  compre- 
hend!    The  transmutation  of  metals  is  an  example. 

9 


10  ..    .  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

1&4 1 , m 

We  have  already  gone  far  enough  in  that  direction  to 
show  that  the  alchemists  of  old  were  not  the  foolish 
and  superstitious  people  we  supposed  them  to  be. 
We  have  given  far  too  little  credit  to  past  civilizations 
and  we  are  coming  to  understand  now  that  we  have 
rated  them  too  low.  Our  modesty  must  necessarily 
increase  as  it  becomes  clearer  that  much  of  our  sup- 
posed contribution  to  the  world's  progress  is  not  in- 
vention but  rediscovery.  We  are  beginning  to  see 
that  it  is  not  safe  to  put  aside  without  careful  exam- 
ination an  idea  or  a  belief  that  was  current  in  the 
world  thousands  of  years  ago.  Like  the  supposed 
folly  of  the  alchemists  it  may  contain  profound 
truths  of  nature  that  have  thus  far  been  foreign  to 
our  modes  of  thinking. 

Theosophy  is  both  very  old  and  very  new — very 
old  because  the  principles  it  contains  were  known  and 
taught  in  the  oldest  civilizations,  and  very  new  be- 
cause it  includes  the  latest  investigations  of  the 
present  day.  It  is  sometimes  said  by  those  who  de- 
sire to  speak  lightly  of  it  that  it  is  a  philosophy  bor- 
rowed from  the  Buddhists,  or  at  least  from  the  Orient. 
That  is,  of  course,  an  erroneous  view.  It  is  true  that 
the  Buddhists  hold  some  beliefs  in  common  with 
theosophists.  It  is  also  true  that  Methodists  hold 
some  beliefs  in  common  with  Unitarians,  but  that  does 
not  show  that  Unitarianism  was  borrowed  from  Wes- 
ley! When  different  people  study  the  same  facts  of 
nature  they  are  likely  to  arrive  at  substantially  the 
same  conclusions.  Theosophy  is  based  upon  certain 
truths  of  nature.     Those  who  study  those  truths  and 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  11 

formulate  a  belief  from  them  must  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected to  resemble  theosophists  in  their  views. 
Buddhism  is  not  unique  in  resembling  theosophy. 
In  the  same  list  may  be  placed  the  Vedanta  philos- 
ophy, the  Cabala  of  the  Jews,  the  teachings  of 
the  Christian  Gnostics  and  the  philosophy  of  the 
Stoics.  The  more  general  charge  must  also  be  denied; 
theosophy  is  not  something  transplanted  from  the 
Orient.  It  belongs  to  the  race,  as  the  earth  does,  and 
cannot  be  localized,  even  to  a  continent.  As  it  is 
taught  today  in  Europe  and  America  it  is  probably 
unknown  to  the  masses  of  the  Orient,  for  the  great 
general  truths  it  embodies  have  here  the  special  appli- 
cation and  peculiar  emphasis  required  by  a  totally 
different  civilization.  But  that  theosophical  prin- 
ciples were  earlier  known  and  more  widely  accepted 
in  the  Orient  is  quite  true.  That  fact  can  in  no  pos- 
sible way  lessen  their  value  to  us.  Precisely  the  same 
thing  is  true  of  the  principles  of  mathematics.  The 
science  of  mathematics  reached  European  civilization 
directly  from  the  Arabs,  but  we  do  not  foolishly  de- 
cline to  make  use  of  the  knowledge  on  that  account. 
The  literal  meaning  of  the  word  theosophy  is  self- 
evident — knowledge  of  God.  It  has  three  aspects, 
determined  by  the  different  ways  in  which  the  human 
being  acquires  knowledge — through  the  study  of  con- 
crete facts,  by  the  study  of  the  relationship  of  the 
individual  consciousness  to  its  source,  and  through  the 
use  of  reasoning  faculties  in  constructing  a  logical 
explanation  of  life  and  its  purpose.  In  one  aspect  it 
is,  therefore,  a  science.     It  deals  with  the  tangible, 


12  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

with  the  facts  and  phenomena  of  the  material  scientist 
and  makes  its  appeal  to  the  evidence  of  the  physical 
senses.  An  another  aspect  it  is  a  religion.  It  deals 
with  the  relationship  between  the  source  of  all  con- 
sciousness and  its  multiplicity  of  individual  expres- 
sions; with  the  complex  relationships  that  arise  be- 
tween these  personalities;  with  the  duties  and  obliga- 
tions which  thus  come  into  existence;  with  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  individual  consciousness  and  its  ultimate 
translation  to  higher  spheres.  In  its  other  aspect  it  is 
a  philosophy  of  life.  It  deals  with  man,  his  origin, 
his  evolution,  his  destiny.  It  seeks  to  explain  the  uni- 
verse and  to  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  problem 
of  existence  that  will  enable  those  who  study  its  wis- 
dom to  go  forward  in  their  evolution  rapidly,  safely 
and  comfortably,  instead  of  blundering  onward  in  the 
darkness  of  ignorance,  reaping  as  they  go  the  painful 
harvests  of  misdirected  energy. 

While  thesosophy  is  distinctly  a  science  and  a 
philosophy  it  is  not,  in  the  same  full  sense,  a  religion. 
It  has  its  distinctive  religious  aspect,  it  is  true,  but 
when  we  speak  of  a  religion  we  usually  have  in  mind 
a  certain  set  of  religious  dogmas  and  a  church  that 
propagates  them.  Theosophy  is  a  universal  thing  like 
mathematics — a  body  of  natural  truths  applicable  to 
all  phases  of  life.  It  sees  all  religions  as  equally  im- 
portant, as  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  varying  civiliza- 
tions in  which  they  are  found,  and  it  presents  a  syn- 
thesis of  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  all 
of  them  rest. 

From  all  of  this  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  vast 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  13 

difference  between  theosophy  and  theology.  Theos- 
ophy  declares  the  immortality  of  man  but  not  as  a 
religious  belief.  It  appeals  to  the  scientific  facts  in. 
relation  to  the  nature  of  consciousness.  It  knows  no 
such  word  as  "faith,"  as  it  is  ordinarily  used.  Its 
faith  arises  from  the  constancy  of  natural  law,  the 
balance  and  sanity  of  nature,  and  the  harmonious  ad- 
justment of  the  universe.  Theosophy  is  very  ancient 
in  that  it  is  the  great  fund  of  ancient  wisdom  about 
man  and  his  earth,  that  has  come  down  through  count- 
less centuries,  reaching  far  back  into  prehistoric  times. 
But  added  to  that  hoary  wisdom  are  the  up-to-date 
facts  that  have  been  acquired  by  its  most  successful 
students,  who  have  evolved  their  consciousness  to 
levels  transcending  the  physical  senses — facts  which, 
however,  do  not  derive  their  authority  from  the  method 
of  their  discovery  but  from  their  inherent  reasonable- 
ness. A  detailed  discusison  of  such  methods  of  con- 
sciousness and  the  proper  value  to  be  placed  upon 
such  investigations  rightly  belongs  to  another  chap- 
ter. It  is  enough  now  to  warn  the  reader  against 
the  error  of  confusing  the  pronouncements  of  pseudo 
psychism  with  the  work  of  the  psychic  scientists  who 
have  already  done  much  toward  placing  a  scientific 
foundation  beneath  the  universal  hope  of  immortality. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  IMMANENCE  OF  GOD 

The  antagonism  between  scientific  and  religious 
thought  was  the  cause  of  the  greatest  controversy  in 
the  intellectual  world  in  the  nineteenth  century.  If 
the  early  teaching  of  the  Christian  Church  had  not 
been  lost  the  conflict  could  not  have  arisen.  The 
Gnostic  philosophers,  who  were  the  intellect  and  heart 
of  the  church,  had  a  knowledge  of  nature  so  true  that 
it  could  not  possibly  come  into  collision  with  any 
fact  of  science.  But  unfortunately  they  were  enor- 
mously outnumbered  by  the  ignorant  and  the  author- 
ity passed  wholly  into  their  hands.  It  was  inevitable 
that  misunderstanding  should  follow.  The  gross 
materialization  of  the  early  teaching,  the  superstition, 
the  bigotry  and  the  persecution  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  a  perfectly  natural  result.  That  perverted, 
materialistic  view  has  come  down  to  us,  and  even  now 
gives  trend  to  the  religious  thought  of  Western  civili- 
zation. Of  that  degradation  of  the  early  teaching 
the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  says: 

The  conception  of  God  as  wholly  external  to 
man,  a  purely  mechanical  theory  of  creation,  is 
throughout  Christendom  regarded  as  false  to  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  as  also  to  Christian 
experience. 

15 


16  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

It  is,  indeed,  false  to  the  teaching  of  the  Christ  but 
if  it  is  so  regarded  "throughout  Christendom"  it  is 
only  on  the  part  of  its  scholars ;  most  certainly  not 
by  the  masses  of  the  people.  The  popular  concep- 
tion is  undeniably  that  the  relationship  between  God 
and  man  is  identical  with  that  between  an  inventor 
and  an  animated  machine.  It  is  an  absolutely  anthro- 
pomorphic view  of  the  Supreme  Being  and  thinks  of 
God  as  being  apart  from  man  in  precisely  the  same 
sense  that  a  father  is  apart  from  his  son.  It  may  be 
an  exalted,  idealized  conception  of  the  relationship  of 
father  and  son  but  it  is  nevertheelss  just  that  rela- 
tionship, and  along  that  line  runs  practically  all  the 
teaching  and  preaching  of  those  who  speak  officially 
in  modern  religious  interpretation.  Emerson  sought 
to  counteract  that  popular  misconception  but  he  was 
regarded  as  a  heretic  by  all  but  an  infinitesimal  por- 
tion of  the  church. 

The  idea  of  the  immanence  of  God  is  as  different 
from  the  popular  conception  as  noontide  is  different 
from  midnight.  It  is  so  radically  different  that  one 
who  accepts  that  ancient  belief  must  put  aside  his  old 
ideas  of  what  man  is  and  raise  him  in  dignity  and 
potential  power  to  a  level  that  will,  at  first,  seem 
actually  startling ;  for  it  means,  in  its  uttermost  sig- 
nificance that  God  and  man  are  but  two  phases  of 
the  one  eternal  life  and  consciousness  that  constitute 
our  universe!  The  idea  of  the  immanence  of  God  is 
that  He  is  the  universe;  that  the  solar  system  is  an 
emanation  of  the  Supreme  Being  as  clouds  are  an 
emanation  of  the  sea,  and  that  the  relationship  between 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  17 


God  and  man  is  not  merely  that  of  father  and  son 
but  also  that  of  ocean  and  raindrop.  This  concep- 
tion makes  man  a  part  of  God,  having  potentially 
within  him  all  the  attributes  and  powers  of  the 
Supreme  Being.  It  is  the  idea  that  nothing  exists 
except  God  and  that  humanity  is  one  portion  of  Him, 
and  one  phase  of  His  being,  as  clouds  are  one  expres- 
sion of  the  waters  that  constitute  the  sea.  The  imma- 
nence of  God  is  a  conception  of  the  universe  that  puts 
science  and  religion  into  perfect  harmony  with  each 
other  because  miraculous  creation  disappears  and  evo- 
lutionary creation  takes  its  place. 

Although  the  anthropomorphic  idea  of  God  has 
such  widespread  dominion  in  Occidental  thought  the 
immanence  of  God  is  plainly  taught  and  repeatedly 
emphasized  in  the  Christian  scriptures.  "For  in  Him 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,"  is  certainly 
very  explicilt  and  admits  of  no  anthropomorphic  in- 
terpretation. It  could  not  be  said  that  a  son  lives 
and  moves  in  his  father.  The  declaration  presents 
the  relationship  of  a  lesser  consciousness  within  a 
greater,  and  constituting  a  part  of  it.  The  essentially 
divine  nature  of  man  is  made  clear  in  the  declaration 
in  Genesis  that  he  is  an  image  of  God.  To  say  that 
the  likeness  is  on  the  material  side  would,  of  course, 
be  absurd.  In  divine  essence,  in  latent  power,  in  po- 
tential spirituality,  man  is  an  image  of  God,  because 
he  is  a*f>art  of  Him.  The  same  idea  is  more  directly 
put  in  the  Psalms  with  the  assertion,  "ye  are  gods."* 

*Psalms  LXXXII— 6. 


18  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

If  the  idea  of  the  immanence  of  God  is  sound  man,  as 
a  literal  fragment  of  the  consciousness  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  is  an  embryo  god,  destined  to  ultimately  evolve 
his  latent  powers  into  perfect  expression. 

The  oneness  of  life  was  explicitly  asserted  by  Jesus 
in  his  teaching.  Emerson's  teaching  of  the  imma- 
nence of  God  is  unmistakable  in  both  his  prose  and 
poetry.  "There  is  no  bar  or  wall,"  he  says,  "in  the 
soul  where  man,  the  effect,  ceases  and  God,  the  Cause, 
begins."     Still  more  explicitly  he  puts  it: 

The  realms  of  being  to  no  other  bow; 
Not  only  all  are  Thine,  but  all  are  Thou. 

The  statement  is  as  complete  as  it  is  emphatic. 
"Not  only  all  are  Thine,  but  all  are  thou."  It's  an 
unqualified  assertion  that  humanity  is  a  part  of  God, 
as  leaves  are  part  of  a  tree — not  something  a  tree  has 
created  in  the  sense  that  a  man  creates  a  machine 
but  something  that  is  an  emanation  of  the  tree,  and 
is  a  living  part  of  it.  Thus  only  has  God  made  man. 
Humanity  is  a  growth,  a  development,  an  emanation, 
an  evolutionary  expression  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

It  is  upon  the  unity  of  all  life  that  theosophy  bases 
its  declaration  of  universal  brotherhood,  regarding 
it  as  a  fact  in  nature.  The  immanence  of  God  gives 
a  scientific  basis  of  morality.  The  theosophical  con- 
ception is  that  men  are  separated  in  form  but  are 
united  in  the  one  consciousness  which  is  the  life  base 
of  the  universe.  Their  relationship  to  each  other  is 
somewhat  like  that  of  the  fingers  to  each  other — 
they  are   separate  individuals  on   the  form   side  but 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 19 

they  are  united  in  the  one  consciousness  that  animates 
the  hand.  If  we  imagine  each  finger  to  possess  a  con- 
sciousness of  its  own,  which  is  limited  to  itself  and 
cannot  pass  beyond  to  the  hand,  we  shall  have  a  fair 
analogy  of  the  unity  and  identity  of  interests  of  all 
living  things.  Under  such  circumstances  an  injury 
to  one  finger  would  not  appear  to  the  others  as  an 
injury  to  them,  but  if  the  finger  consciousness  could 
be  extended  to  the  hand  the  reality  of  the  injury  to 
all  would  be  apparent.  Likewise  an  injury  to  any 
human  being  is  literally  an  injury  to  the  race.  The 
race  does  not  recognize  the  truth  of  it  just  because, 
and  only  because,  of  the  limitation  of  consciousness. 
Lowell  put  the  fact  clearly  when  he  said : 

He's   true   to    God   who's   true   to   man. 
Wherever  wrong  is  done 
To  the  humblest  and  weakest 
'Neath  the  all-beholding  sun, 
That  wrong  is  also  done  to  us; 
And   they  are   slaves   most  base 
Whose  love  of  right  is  for  themselves, 
And  not  for  all  the  race. 

He's  true  to  God  who's  true  to  man  because  they 
are  one  life;  because  they  are  but  different  expres- 
sions of  the  one  eternal  consciousness;  because  they 
are  as  inseparable  as  the  light  and  warmth  of  the 
sun.  It  follows  that  being  true  to  man  is  fidelity  to 
God. 

The  popular  idea  is  that  people  should  be  moral 
because  that  sort  of  conduct  is  pleasing  to  the  Supreme 
Being  and  that  He  will,  in  the  life  beyond  physical 


20  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

existence,  in  some  way  punish  those  who  have  broken 
the  moral  laws.  It  is  belief  in  an  external  authority 
that  threatens  punishment  as  a  deterrent  to  law  break- 
ing, as  a  state  devises  penalties  commensurate  with 
offenses.  But  the  immanence  of  God  represents  a 
condition  in  which  not  punishments,  but  consequences, 
automatically  follow  all  violations  of  natural  law. 
Under  such  a  state  of  affairs  it  would  require,  no 
penalties,  but  only  knowledge,  to  insure  right  con- 
duct, for  it  would  be  perceived  that  there  is  no  pos- 
sible escape  from  the  consequences  of  an  evil  act. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  the  relative  value  of  the 
two  systems  of  thought  when  put  to  a  practical  test 
in  human  affairs.  Imagine  an  unscrupulous  man  of 
great  mental  capacity  who  is  amassing  an  enormous 
fortune  through  sharp  practices  that  enable  him  to 
acquire  the  earnings  of  others  while  he  safely  keeps 
just  within  the  limits  of  the  law.  We  can  point  out 
to  him  that  while  he  is  not  violating  the  law,  and 
cannot  therefore  be  prosecuted,  he  is  nevertheless  in- 
flicting injury  upon  others  and  consequently  public 
opinion  will  condemn  him.  But  such  a  man  usually 
cares  nothing  at  all  for  public  opinion  and  he  sees  no 
good  reason  why  he  should  not  continue  in  his  in- 
jurious work.  But  if  he  can  be  made  to  understand 
that  all  life  is  one  and  that  we  are  so  knit  together  in 
consciousness  that  an  injury  to  another  must  ulti- 
mately react  upon  the  person  who  inflicts  it;  if  he 
once  clearly  understands  that  to  enslave  another  is 
to  put  chains  upon  himself,  that  to  maim  another  is  to 
strike  himself,  he  will  require  neither  the  fear  of  an 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  21 

exterior  hell  nor  the  threat  of  legal  penalties  to  induce 
him  to  follow  a  moral  course.  He  would  see  that  his 
own  larger  and  true  self-interest  could  be  served  only 
when  his  conduct  was  in  harmony  with  the  welfare 
of  all.  It  is  but  a  simple  statement  of  the  truth  to  say 
that  the  immanence  of  God  furnishes  a  scientific  basis 
of  morality. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL 

If  we  accept  the  idea  of  the  immanence  of  God  we 
shall  be  forced  to  abandon  belief  in  a  miraculous  in- 
stantaneous creation  of  man  and  the  earth  on  which 
he  exists.  The  old,  absurd,  unscientific,  impossible 
idea  that  the  race  came  from  an  original  human  pair 
must  be  replaced  by  the  hypothesis  of  the  evolution 
of  the  soul. 

It  was  about  the  fact  of  evolution  that  the  great 
storm  of  controversy  raged  between  scientists  and 
theologians  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  later.  The  evolutionary  truths  were  not  at  first 
well  understood.  They  seemed  to  question  or  deny  the 
existence  of  God.  Deep  within  humanity  is  intuitive  re- 
ligious belief.  It  is  a  natural  faith  that  transcends  all 
facts,  like  the  faith  of  a  child  in  its  mother.  Because  evo- 
lution was  contrary  to  all  preconceived  ideas  of  the  earth's 
inception  it  seemed  at  first  to  shatter  faith  and  destroy 
hope,  and  against  fact  and  reason  itself  rose  the  pro- 
test of  intuition  with  spiritual  intensity.  People  felt 
more  than  they  reasoned  and  cried  out  that  science 
was  about  to  destroy  the  belief  in  God.  But  time  has 
proved  that  they  had  merely  misinterpreted  the  mean- 

23 


24  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

ing  of  evolution.  Further  understanding  has  shown 
that,  instead  of  destroying  the  belief  in  God,  evolution 
has  given  us  a  new  and  better  understanding  of  the 
whole  matter  and  has  placed  the  hope  of  immortality 
on  firmer  ground  than  it  previously  occupied. 

Evolution  is  an  established  and  generally  accepted 
fact.  No  educated  person  now  thinks  of  questioning 
it.  It  is  settled  beyond  dispute  that  all  things  in  the 
physical  world  have  become  what  they  are  through  a 
long,  slow,  gradual  evolution  and  that  organisms  the 
most  perfect  in  form  and  most  complex  in  function 
have  evolved  from  simpler  ones.  The  age  of  miracle 
has  passed  and  belief  in  miracle  has  passed  so  far  as 
its  relation  to  the  material  world  is  concerned.  It 
is  no  longer  necessary  to  have  a  belief  in  an  anthro- 
pomorphic God,  performing  feats  in  defiance  of  natural 
law,  in  order  to  account  for  that  which  exists.  Science 
has  reduced  the  cosmos  to  comprehension  and  shown 
that,  given  nebulous  physical  matter,  we  can  under- 
stand how  the  earth  came  into  existence. 

But  why  should  we  stop  with  the  application  of 
the  laws  of  evolution  to  material  things?  Only  the 
outright  materialist,  who  asserts  that  life  is  a  product 
of  matter,  can  logically  do  so,  and  so  great  an  author- 
ity in  the  scientific  world  as  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has 
asserted  that  there  is  no  longer  any  such  thing  as 
scientific  materialism.*  Those  who  accept  the  idea 
of  the  existence  of  the  soul  at  all  must  necessarily 
accept  the  idea  of  the  evolution  of  the  soul.     How 

♦Raymond:       or  Life  and  Death. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 25 

can  consciousness  possibly  escape  the  laws  that 
evolve  the  media  for  the  expression  of  consciousness? 
There  must  be  the  evolution  of  mind  as  certainly  as 
there  is  evolution  of  matter.  The  material  and  the 
spiritual,  form  and  life,  are  inseparable.  Indeed, 
scientific  progress  has  now  brought  us  to  the  point 
where  matter,  as  such,  practically  disappears  and  we 
are  face  to  face  with  the  fact  that  matter  is  really  but 
a  manifestation  of  force.  How,  then,  is  it  longer  pos- 
sible to  speak  of  the  soul  and  not  accept  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  soul?  Psychology  is  no  less  a  science  than 
physiology.  The  phenomena  of  consciousness  are  as 
definitely  studied  as  physical  phenomena,  and  it  is 
no  more  difficult  to  account  for  a  myriad  souls  than 
to  account  for  a  million  suns  and  their  planets.  The 
scientists  who  have  taken  the  position  that  the  uni- 
verse has  a  spiritual  side  as  well  as  a  material  side 
are  among  the  most  eminent  and  distinguished  of  the 
modern  world.  If  evolution  has  produced  the  starry 
heavens  from  the  material  side  it  has  likewise  evolved 
the  human  souls  of  our  world  and  others  from  the 
spritual  side.  It  is  no  more  difficult  to  understand 
the  one  than  the  other. 

From  the  scientific  viewpoint  the  old  popular  be- 
lief in  the  creation  of  the  earth  and  the  race  by  an  act 
suddenly  accomplished  is,  of  course,  preposterous.  If 
we  could  know  nothing  back  of  the  present  moment 
and  were  called  upon  to  account  for  the  world  as  we 
see  it — with  its  cities,  its  ships  and  railways,  its  cul- 
tivated fields  and  parks — many  people  who  still  be- 
lieve   in   instantaneous    creation   of   the    soul    would 


26  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

save  themselves  much  mental  exertion  by  declaring 
that  God  had  made  it  all  as  it  stands  for  the  use  and 
entertainment  of  man.  But  we  know  that  it  is  utterly- 
absurd  to  think  of  the  world  leaping  into  existence  in- 
stantaneously— nothing  existing  one  day  and  all  trains 
running  on  time  between  ready-made  cities  the  next, 
carrying  ready-made  people  about.  It  sounds  ridicu- 
lous only  because  we  are  putting  it  in  material  terms, 
but  in  very  truth  it  is  less  ludicrous  than  thinking  of 
the  instantaneous  creation  of  the  creators  of  cities 
and  railways. 

The  idea  that  we  are  a  sudden  creation  is  only 
possible  because  of  the  very  vague  ideas  of  what 
human  souls  are.  The  chief  difficulty  with  the  popu- 
lar notion  that  a  human  soul  is  as  new  as  the  body  it 
inhabits  is  that  it  is  a  vague  and  indefinite  conception 
of  life,  and  the  moment  we  begin  to  think  seriously 
about  it  the  weakness  of  the  idea  becomes  apparent. 
Such  a  notion  has  no  relationship  to  the  processes  of- 
reasoning.  How  can  one  reason  with  a  man  who 
believes  it  possible  for  a  soul  to  spring  into  existence 
from  the  void?  What  is  the  use  in  reasoning  about 
the  "whys  and  wherefores"  when  it  settles  the  whole 
matter  to  say:     "God  did  it"? 

One  thing  that  prevents  us  from  believing  not  only 
that  millions  of  souls  were  created  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  but  also  that  the  world  as  it  now  is  was 
likewise  suddenly  created,  is  that  we  happen  to  know 
quite  definitely  the  history  of  the  world  a  little  way 
into  the  past,  and  that  history  affirms  that  the  earth 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  27 

and  all  life  on  it  is  the  product  of  slow  evolutionary 
growth. 

The  evolution  of  the  soul  places  the  realm  of  re- 
ligion on  a  scientific  basis.  Not  only  the  origin  of 
the  soul  but  its  development  and  its  destiny  at  once 
appear  in  a  new  light.  The  mind  is  instinctively  im- 
pressed with  the  dignity  of  the  idea  of  the  evolution 
of  the  soul,  which,  with  its  corollary,  the  immanence 
of  God,  makes  the  divinity  of  man  a  fact  in  nature. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LIFE  AFTER  BODILY  DEATH 

One  of  the  really  remarkable  facts  of  modern  life  is 
the  disinclination  to  accept  at  apparent  value  the  scien- 
tific and  other  evidence  there  is  to  prove  that  conscious- 
ness persists  after  the  death  of  the  physical  body.  There 
is  in  existence  a  large  amount  of  such  evidence  and  much 
of  it  is  offered  by  scientists  of  the  highest  standing ;  and 
yet  the  average  man  continues  to  speak  of  the  subject 
as  though  nothing  about  it  had  yet  been  definitely  learned. 
It  is  the  tendency  of  the  human  mind  to  adjust  itself  very 
slowly  to  the  truth,  as  it  is  discovered.  Sometimes  a 
generation  passes  away  between  the  discovery  and  the 
general  acceptance  of  a  great  truth.  When  we  recall  the 
intense  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  steam-driven 
boats  and  vehicles,  and  the  slowness  with  which  the 
world  settles  down  to  any  radical  change  in  its  methods 
of  thinking,  it  will  perhaps  seem  less  remarkable  that  the 
truth  about  the  life  after  bodily  death  has  waited  so 
long  for  general  recognition. 

The  evidence  upon  which  a  belief  in  the  continuity  of 
consciousness  is  based  is  of  two  kinds — that  furnished 
by  physical  science  and  that  furnished  by  psychic  science. 
Together  they  make  a  very  complete  case. 

29 


30  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

The  printed  evidence  of  the  first  division — physical 
science — is  voluminous.  In  addition  to  that  gathered  by 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  there  are  the  re- 
searches and  experiments  by  the  scientists  of  England, 
France  and  Italy,  among  whom  are  Crookes,  Lodge, 
Flammarion  and  Lombroso.  Crookes  was  a  pioneer  in 
the  work  of  studying  the  human  consciousness  and  trac- 
ing its  activities  beyond  the  change  called  death.  All  of 
that  keenness  of  intellect  and  great  scientific  knowledge, 
which  has  enabled  him  to  make  so  many  valuable  dis- 
coveries and  inventions,  and  has  won  for  him  world-wide 
fame,  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject,  and  for  a 
period  of  four  years  he  patiently  investigated  and  ex- 
perimented. Many  illustrated  articles  prepared  by  him, 
fully  describing  his  work,  were  published  at  the  time  in 
The  Journal  of  Science  of  which  he  was  then  the  editor. 

Three  vital  points  in  psychic  research  were  estab- 
lished by  Sir  William  Crookes.  One  was  that  there  is 
psychic  force.  He  demonstrated  its  existence  by  levita- 
tion.  He  showed  next,  that  the  force  is  directed  by  in- 
telligence. By  various  clever  experiments  he  obtained 
most  conclusive  evidence  of  that  fact.  He  then  demon- 
strated that  the  intelligence  directing  the  force  is  not  that 
of  living  people.  Crookes  also  went  exhaustively  into 
the  subject  of  materialization  and  here,  again,  he  was 
remarkably  successful.  He  was  the  first  scientist  to 
photograph  the  materialized  human  form  and  engage  in 
direct  conversation  with  the  person  who  thus  returned 
from  the  mysterious  life  beyond.  This  evidence  from  the 
camera  must  be  regarded  as  particularly  interesting.  It 
was  received  with  much  amazement  at  the  time,  but  that 


ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY  31 


was  before  we  had  revised  our  erroneous  ideas  about  the 
nature  of  matter  and  before  the  day  of  liquid  air.  Ma- 
terialization is  no  longer  a  startling  idea,  for  that  is  pre- 
cisely what  liquid  air  is — a  condensation  of  invisible 
matter  to  the  point  where  it  becomes  tangible  and  can 
be  weighed,  measured,  seen  and  otherwise  known  to  the 
physical  senses. 

All  these  things  Sir  William  Crookes  did  upon  his 
own  premises  and  under  the  most  rigid  scientific  con- 
ditions. All  the  methods  and  mechanism  known  to  mod- 
ern science  were  employed  and  he  finally  announced  his 
complete  satisfaction  and  acceptance  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  phenomena  observed. 

As  Sir  William  Crookes  was  the  earliest,  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge  is  the  latest  of  the  famous  scientists  who  have 
taken  up  the  investigation  of  the  continuity  of  conscious- 
ness. In  a  lecture  upon  the  subject,  before  the  Society 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  he  declared  not  only 
that  the  subject  of  life  after  physical  death  was  one  which 
science  might  legitimately  and  profitably  investigate  but 
that  the  existence  of  an  invisible  realm  had  been  estab- 
lished. He  declared  the  continent  of  an  invisible  world 
had  been  discovered,  and  added,  "already  a  band  of  dar- 
ing investigators  have  landed  on  its  treacherous  but 
promising  shores." 

Different  scientists  make  a  specialty  of  certain  kinds 
of  psychic  investigation  and  while  Crookes  made  a  de- 
tailed and  careful  study  of  materialization  Lodge  has 
given  equally  painstaking  efforts  to  investigations  by  the 
use  of  that  class  of  sensitives  known  as  "mediums."  A 
medium  is  not  necessarily  a  clairvoyant,  and  usually  is 


32  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

not  clairvoyant.  A  person  in  whose  body  the  etheric 
matter  easily  separates  from  the  physical  matter  is  a 
medium  and  can  readily  be  utilized  as  a  sort  of  telephone 
between  the  visible  and  the  invisible  planes.  A  medium 
is  an  abnormal  person  and  is  a  good  medium  in  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  of  abnormality.  If  the  etheric 
matter  of  the  body  is  easily  extruded  the  physical  body 
readily  falls  into  the  trance  condition  and  the  mechanism 
of  conversation  can  be  operated  by  the  so-called  "dead" 
person  who  has  temporarily  taken  possession  of  it.  In 
such  cases  it  is  not  the  medium  who  speaks  for  the  living- 
dead  communicator.  He  is  speaking  directly  himself, 
but  he  may  often  do  it  with  great  difficulty  and  not  always 
succeed  in  accurately  expressing  the  thought  he  has  in 
mind.  He  may  have  to  contend  with  other  thoughts, 
moods  and  emotions  than  his  own  and  to  those  who  un- 
derstand something  of  his  difficulties  it  is  not  strange 
that  such  communications  are  frequently  unsatisfactory. 
It  is  not  often  that  an  analogy  can  be  found  that  will 
give  a  physical  plane  comprehension  of  a  superphysical 
condition,  but  perhaps  a  faint  understanding  may  be 
had  by  thinking  of  a  "party  line"  telephone  that  any  one 
of  a  dozen  people  may  use  at  any  moment  he  can  succeed 
in  getting  possession  of  it.  A  listener  attempting  to 
communicate  with  one  of  them  may  find  that  several 
others  are  constantly  "switching  in,"  much  to  his  con- 
fusion. If  distinction  of  voices  due  to  sound  were  elimi- 
nated and  then  a  stenographic  record  were  to  be  made 
of  all  words  reaching  the  listener  he  would  find  that  it 
would  often  be  fragmentary  and  trivial.  That  would  not, 
however,  prove  that  the  conversation  did  not  come  from 


ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY  33 


living  beings  nor  that  there  was  not  at  least  one  intelli- 
gent person  among  them.  That  scientists  engaged  in 
psychic  research  have  similar  experiences  proves  nothing 
more. 

It  seems  to  be  a  common  opinion  that  the  evidential 
value  of  such  psychic  communications,  even  under  the 
direction  of  a  skilful  scientist,  cannot  be  very  great.  But 
there  are  ways  of  knowing.  It  is  not  at  all  difficult  for 
the  investigator  to  confine  his  work,  not  only  to  incidents 
unknown  to  the  medium,  but  to  scientific  facts  which 
the  medium  can  not  possibly  comprehend.  It  is  a  matter 
of  common  knowledge  that  mediums  are  usually  people 
without  technical  scientific  knowledge.  Some  of  them 
have  some  degree  of  education  and  some  of  them  are 
illiterate.  Some  of  the  most  celebrated  belong  to  the 
peasant  class  of  Europe. 

Let  us  suppose  that  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  is  about  to 
attempt  to  communicate  with  a  scientist  who  has  passed 
on  to  join  the  living  dead.  He  will  ask  technical  scien- 
tific questions  that  nobody  but  a  scientist  can  answer  and 
that  the  medium  can  by  no  possibility  even  understand 
when  they  are  answered.  Or  suppose  he  gets  a  communi- 
cation from  the  medium's  hand  signed  by  a  great  author. 
The  living  dead  man  writes  a  criticism,  let  us  say,  of  some 
new  book  and  does  it  in  his  characteristic  style,  full 
of  the  power  of  keen  analysis  and  sound  literary  judg- 
ment. Surely  nobody  can  believe  that  the  medium  is 
producing  such  things  on  her  own  account.  If  she  could 
do  so  she  would  not  be  earning  her  living  as  a  medium. 
But  the  scientists  do  not  stop  there.  We  often  hear  the 
expression  "cross-correspondence."     Just  what  do  they 


34  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

mean  by  that  and  in  what  way  does  it  prove  the  personal 
identity  of  a  dead  man  who  is  communciating ?  The 
principle  may  be  illustrated  by  the  hotel  clerk's  method. 
Sometimes  a  guest  leaves  a  sum  of  money  with  the 
clerk,  and  he  wishes  to  be  perfectly  sure  of  his  identity 
when  he  returns  to  claim  it.  He  requests  the  guest  to  put 
his  signature  on  a  card.  Then  he  tears  the  card  in  two, 
gives  him  one  piece  and  keeps  the  other.  That  gives 
him  a  double  proof  of  identity.  When  he  comes  for  his 
money  he  must  first  give  his  name  and  then  produce  the 
piece  of  card  that  fits  into  the  ragged  edge  of  the  piece 
the  clerk  has  retained,  the  two  together  making  the  whole 
and  restoring  the  signature.  It's  one  of  the  simplest  but 
most  satisfactory  proofs  possible.  Neither  piece  of  that 
card  alone  is  intelligible.  If  one  piece  should  be  lost 
and  others  should  find  it  nobody  could  read  it  or  make 
anything  of  it.  Nobody  could  guess  the  name  unless  he 
had  the  other  piece.  He  knows  only  about  the  part  he 
holds.  He  may  be  a  thief  and  may  earnestly  desire  to 
use  what  he  has  found  to  defraud,  but  he  is  helpless 
because  he  has  only  one  of  the  two  parts  it  requires  to 
make  an  intelligible  whole.  That  is  the  principle  in- 
volved in  identity  by  cross-correspondence.  Part  of  a 
message  is  written  through  one  medium  and  part  through 
another  medium  at  another  time  in  another  place  and 
neither  part  presents  a  complete  statement  or  has  co- 
herence until  it  is  fitted  into  the  other  part;  and  that 
prevents  a  medium  who  is  dishonest  from  manufacturing 
a  story  that  may  be  more  or  less  plausible. 

We  are  by  no  means  wholly  dependent  upon  scientific 
investigation  for  evidence  that  the  dead  still  live.    Hun- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  35 


dreds  of  people  are  sufficiently  sensitive  to  have  some 
personal  knowledge  of  the  matter.  The  number  is  far 
beyond  what  it  appears  to  be  for  two  reasons.  One  is 
that  the  average  person  fears  ridicule  and  keeps  his  own 
counsel  about  his  occult  experience.  The  other  is  the 
feeling  that  communications  from  departed  relatives  are 
too  sacred  and  personal  for  public  discussion.  Tens  of 
thousands  of  people  have  seen  demonstrations  at  spiritu- 
alistic seances  which,  while  possessing  little  evidential 
value  from  the  scientific  viewpoint,  nevertheless  have  a 
legitimate  place  in  the  great  mass  of  psychic  phenomena. 
But  more  convincing  is  the  evidence  furnished  in  hun- 
dreds of  homes  where  some  member  of  the  family  acts 
as  automatic  writer  or  medium. 

The  most  convincing  evidence  is  not  always  scien- 
tific evidence.  What  can  be  more  convincing  than  the 
the  evidence  furnished  in  one's  home  by  members  of 
the  family?  There  is  much  such  evidence,  obtained  both 
through  mediums  and  by  automatic  writing. 

Automatic  writing — that  is,  the  control  of  the  hand 
of  a  living  person  to  record  the  thoughts  of  another 
who  has  lost  the  physical  body — is  perhaps  one  of  the 
least  objectionable  ways  in  which  communications  have 
come  from  the  astral  world,  and  to  it  we  are  indebted 
for  some  useful  books  with  interesting  accounts  of  the 
life  in  the  unseen  regions.  Here,  of  course,  as  elsewhere, 
discrimination  must  be  used,  for  the  wise  and  foolish, 
the  useful  and  useless  are  to  be  found  side  by  side. 
In  accepting  or  rejecting,  one  must  use  his  common 
sense  just  as  he  does  on  this  plane  in  separating  the 
valuable  from  the  worthless.    In  such  matters  we  should 


36  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  living  dead  are  un- 
changed in  intellect  and  morality.  The  genius  here  is 
the  genius  there  and  the  living  fool  is  not  different  from 
the  dead  one.  It  is  often  those  who  know  the  least  who 
are  the  most  anxious  to  tell  it  and  the  medium  or  auto- 
matic writer  sometimes  gives  them  the  opportunity.  Con- 
sequently we  get  many  foolish  communications  and  an 
enormous  amount  of  commonplace  platitude  is  delivered 
at  seances.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  unquestionable 
proof  of  personal  identity  is  sometimes  secured. 

There  is  much  valuable  non-scientific  evidence  that 
the  consciousness  survives  the  loss  of  the  physical  body 
and  it  frequently  comes  from  sources  that  insure  respect- 
ful attention.  The  two  following  stories  of  that  kind 
are  cited  as  corroboration  of  the  scientific  evidence. 

Little  touches  of  the  personality  often  constitute  the 
most  convincing  of  all  evidence.  It  is  one  thing  to  show 
that  people  in  general  live  after  physical  death.  It  is 
quite  a  different  matter  to  establish  the  personal  identity 
of  one  of  them  who  is  communicating,  and  that  is  one 
of  the  vital  points  involved.  W.  J.  Stillman,  the  eminent 
journalist,  gives  us  some  valuable  evidence  on  personal 
identity.  In  his  earlier  years  he  had  studied  art  in  Lon- 
don. Shortly  before  the  death  of  Turner,  the  great  artist 
had  volunteered  to  give  Stillman  some  advice  on  paint- 
ing, but  had  not  redeemed  the  promise  at  the  time  of 
passing  away.  Stillman  had  a  friend  whose  daughter 
was  mediumistic  and  he  decided  to  experiment.  Imme- 
diately on  beginning  the  seance  the  young  girl  was  taken 
possession  of  by  an  entity  claiming  to  be  Turner.  Still- 
man asked  his  question  silently,  speaking  no  words,  but 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 37 

mentally  requesting  Turner  to  write  his  name.  The  only- 
reply  was  an  emphatic  shake  of  the  head.  He  then 
asked  if  he  would  give  some  advice  on  painting.  The 
response  was  another  decided  negative.  Stillman  felt 
that  he  was  foolishly  wasting  his  time  and  declared  the 
seance  at  an  end.  But  the  girl  sat  silent.  Then  after  a 
moment  she  slowly  arose  with  the  air  of  decrepitude, 
took  a  lithograph  from  the  wall  and  went  through  the 
pantomime  of  stretching  a  sheet  of  paper  on  a  drawing 
board,  sharpening  a  pencil,  tracing  the  outline,  the  wash- 
ing-in  of  a  drawing,  etc.,  and  then  proceeded  to  show  a 
simple  but  surprising  method  of  taking  out  the  lights. 
"Do  you  mean  to  say  that  Turner  got  his  effects  in  that 
way?"  asked  the  incredulous  young  artist.  The  answer 
was  an  emphatic  affirmative.  Stillman  then  asked  if  the 
central  passage  of  sunlight  and  shadow  through  rain  in 
the  well  known  drawing  "Llanthony  Abbey"  by  Turner, 
had  been  done  in  that  way  and  was  answered  by  another 
emphatic  affirmative.  So  sure  was  the  young  artist  that 
this  could  not  be  true  that  he  gave  it  up  in  disgust  and 
abruptly  left.  A  few  weeks  later  Stillman  was  calling 
upon  Ruskin  and  related  the  experience.  Ruskin,  who 
had  known  the  celebrated  dead  artist  intimately,  declared 
that  the  contrariness  of  the  medium  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seance  was  remarkably  characteristic  of  Turner.  But 
what  was  much  more  to  the  point,  in  the  way  of  evidence, 
was  that  the  drawing  in  question  was  in  Ruskin's  pos- 
session and  eagerly  it  was  brought  down  from  the  wall 
for  examination.  After  close  scrutiny  the  great  art 
critic  and  the  young  artist  agreed  that,  beyond  dispute, 
the  drawing  had  been  done  in  the  way  described. 


38  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

Such  evidence  has  an  added  value  when  it  comes  from 
those  who  are  neither  spiritualists  nor  professional  in- 
vestigators, but  who  have  the  things  they  doubt  thrust 
upon  them  in  such  convincing  manner  that  they  feel 
impelled  to  record  their  experience  for  the  enlightenment 
of  others.  In  the  last  literary  work  *  done  by  Carl  Schurz, 
we  are  given,  quite  incidentally,  his  testimony  that  at  a 
seance  soon  after  the  Civil  War  he  was  told  the  future 
in  such  detail  as  to  leave  no  possible  room  for  the  ex- 
planation of  coincidence.  It  was  in  July,  1865,  when 
Schurz  was  on  his  way  to  Washington,  whither  he  had 
been  summoned  by  President  Johnson,  that  he  stopped  in 
Philadelphia  at  the  home  of  his  friend,  Dr.  Tiedemann. 
The  doctor's  daughter,  about  fifteen  years  old,  could  do 
automatic  writing.  As  a  matter  of  interest  and  amuse- 
ment in  the  family  circle  the  girl  gave  an  exhibition  of 
her  psychic  abilities.  When  Schurz  was  invited  to  ask 
for  a  communication  he  not  unnaturally  requested  one 
from  the  recently  deceased  President  Lincoln,  for  he 
had  been  personally  acquainted  with  him.  The  girl  wrote 
a  message  purporting  to  come  from  Lincoln.  It  related 
to  politics  and  proved,  in  time,  to  have  been  an  accurate 
prophecy  of  most  unexpected  facts  which  would  not 
transpire  for  more  than  three  years!  Schurz  lived  in 
Wisconsin  at  the  time  and  had  no  intention  of  changing 
his  residence,  nor  did  he  do  so  until  two  years  later. 
The  message  which  the  girl  wrote  asserted  that  Schurz 
would  be  elected  to  the  United  States  senate  from  Mis- 
souri.    He  did  not  regard  the  message  as  authentic  and 

""Reminiscences  of  Carl  Schurz,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  154. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  39 

naturally  enough  considered  the  prophecy  absurd.  In 
1867  he  took  up  his  residence  in  St.  Louis  and  in  Jan- 
uary, 1869,  he  was  elected  United  States  senator  by  the 
Missouri  legislature. 

So  far  as  the  scientific  evidence  is  concerned,  it  will 
be  understood,  of  course,  that  no  attempt  is  here 
made  to  present  that.  The  intention  is  merely  to  call 
attention  to  some  of  the  eminent  scientists  who 
have  done  notable  work  and  to  mention  a  few  of  the 
more  interesting  discoveries  made.  Those  who  desire  to 
come  into  possession  of  the  evidence  in  full  will  find  upon 
examination  that  it  is  voluminous. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  physical  science  alone  the 
evidence  of  the  continuity  of  consciousness  is  not  only 
convincing  but  conclusive.  Yet  occult  science  has  much 
more  to  offer.  To  those  who  have  no  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  existence  of  occult  faculties,  such  evidence 
can  be  offered  only  upon  the  inherent  reasonableness  of 
the  statements  made. 

The  truth  of  clairvoyance,  like  all  other  truths,  must 
slowly  win  its  way  to  general  acceptance.  While  large 
numbers  of  people  still  scoff  at  it,  even  as  the  world  not 
so  very  long  ago  scoffed  at  hypnotism  as  a  fantastic 
theory  with  no  foundation  in  fact,  there  is  nevertheless 
a  large  and  rapidly  growing  number  who  personally  know 
the  truth  about  clairvoyance.  There  is  every  conceivable 
grade  of  clairvoyant  power  and  some  degree  of  super- 
physical  sensitiveness  is  becoming  rather  common. 

There  are  two  distinct  kinds  of  clairvoyance  and  that 
which  is  most  in  evidence  with  the  public  is  not  calcu- 
lated to  inspire  confidence.     It  is  employed  almost  ex- 


40  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

clusively  in  what  is  known  as  "fortune  telling"  and  is 
often  practiced  by  those  who  are  interested  only  in  the 
money  they  can  earn  by  it.  As  a  matter  of  course,  trickery 
and  fraud  are  found  associated  with  it  among  such  peo- 
ple, and  those  amongst  them  who  are  both  capable  and 
honest  suffer  on  account  of  it. 

The  fortune  telling  clairvoyant  is  usually  one  who 
was  born  with  "second  sight,"  as  the  Scotch  have  named 
it,  and  almost  without  an  exception  they  do  not  in  the 
least  understand  its  rationale.  They  find  certain  facts 
in  their  consciousness  that  could  not  be  known  to  them  by 
the  physical  senses,  but  why  or  how  they  get  the  informa- 
tion they  do  not  know.  That  form  of  clairvoyance  is  a 
sensitiveness  related  to  the  sympathetic  nervous  system, 
the  center  of  which  is  the  solar  plexus.  It  has  no  re- 
lationship whatever  to  the  mind,  no  association  with  in- 
telligence, and  will  often — indeed,  commonly — be  pos- 
sessed by  the  most  ignorant  and  uncouth.  It  is  much 
more  common  among  Indians  and  negroes  than  among 
more  highly  evolved  people.  It  is  vestigial  and  will 
slowly  disappear  from  the  race.  It  belongs  to  the  realm 
of  emotion,  not  thought. 

The  higher  clairvoyance,  the  only  true  "clear  seeing," 
is  associated  with  the  cerebro-spinal  nervous  system  and 
its  seat  is  in  the  brain.     It  is  not  a  "natural  gift"*  like  the 

There  are,  of  course,  really  no  natural  gifts. 
Nature  does  not  favor  some  and  ignore  others.  When 
a  few  possess  what  others  do  not  have,  they  earned 
it  by  giving  special  attention  to  its  development 
or  as  in  the  case  of  the  psychic  sensitiveness  of  the 
sympathetic  nervous  system,  it  is  vestigial,  and  has 
been  possessed  by  the  race  in  earlier  ages. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  41 

other,  although  it  is  latent  in  all  human  beings.  It  has 
been  highly  developed  in  some  who  have  had  the  unusual 
opportunity  of  long  training  under  the  direct  supervision 
of  great  psychic  scientists.  Such  clairvoyants  are  never 
to  be  found  among  the  fortune  tellers.  Only  people  with 
serious  views  of  life  and  intense  devotion  to  human  serv- 
ice would  have  the  patience  and  endurance  to  undergo 
such  training  and  only  those  of  singular  purity  of  life 
would  have  any  possibility  of  success.  Such  clairvoyants 
are  people  of  keen  intelligence.  By  special  training  and 
tremendous  effort,  not  possible  to  most  of  us,  they  have 
pressed  forward  in  evolution  and  attained  a  development 
that  the  race  will  be  many  a  century  in  reaching. 

It  is  by  the  use  of  this  exalted  order  of  clairvoyance 
that  invisible  realms  are  explored,  and  additional  knowl- 
edge is  accumulated  to  the  ancient  wisdom.  Such  a 
clairvoyant  is  not  a  medium.  The  medium  surrenders 
his  physical  mechanism  for  the  use  of  another,  who 
speaks  through  it,  and  at  the  close  of  the  seance  the 
medium  knows  nothing  of  what  has  occurred.  The  clair- 
voyant is  always  in  possession  of  his  senses  and  is  fully 
aware  of  what  is  occurring.  He  is  the  explorer  and  dis- 
coverer. He  deals  with  the  facts  of  the  life  after  bodily 
death  in  a  different  way  than  the  physical  scientist  does 
but  it  is  soon  found  by  the  student  that  the  physical  scien- 
tist and  the  psychic  scientist  corroborate  each  other. 
Together  they  bring  overwhelming  evidence  to  support 
the  hypothesis  that  life  is  eternal;  that  the  consciousness 
we  have  at  this  moment  will  never  cease  to  be ;  that  our 
individuality,  with  all  its  present  memories,  will  eternally 
persist ;  that  what  we  call  death  is  in  reality  but  a  forward 


42  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

step  in  an  orderly  evolutionary  journey  and  an  entrance 
upon  a  more  joyous  phase  of  life,  which  is  not  remark- 
ably different  from  that  we  live  today.  The  sum  total  of 
the  knowledge  that  we  have  gained  through  the  com- 
bined work  of  the  physical  scientists  and  the  occult  sci- 
entists leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  death  of  the 
physical  body  means  neither  the  annihilation  of  conscious- 
ness nor  a  radical  change  in  consciousness.  It  is,  in  fact, 
but  the  release  of  consciousness  from  its  confinement  to 
the  physical  form,  as  a  song-bird  is  released  from  a  cage 
to  the  joyous  freedom  of  a  wider  world,  where  woods 
and  stream  and  field  and  sky  give  new  impulse  to  its 
innate  characteristics. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  EVOLUTIONARY  FIELD 

In  a  treatise  on  elementary  theosophy  the  solar 
system  may  be  reckoned  as  our  universe  and  we  shall 
have  no  need  of  considering  more  than  a  small  frag- 
ment of  even  that.  It  is  septenary  in  constitution, 
as  may  be  seen  in  its  vibrations  expressed  in  color 
and  sound.  Beyond  the  seven  colors  of  the  prism 
we  have  only  tints  and  outside  the  seven  notes  we 
can  get  only  overtones  or  undertones.  There  are 
likewise  seven  planes  in  the  system  but  less  than 
half  of  them  require  our  attention,  for  the  evolution- 
ary field  of  the  human  soul  is  the  three  lower  planes, 
known  as  the  physical,  astral  and  mental.  When  the 
human  being  has  Outgrown  them  in  evolution  he 
passes  on  to  superhuman  evolution. 

The  word  "plane,"  so  often  encountered  in  theo- 
sophical  literature,  should  perhaps  have  some  defi- 
nition. It  has  a  wide  application  and  is  used  as  a 
synonym  for  region,  place,  sphere  or  world.  In  re- 
ferring to  the  physical  plane  the  term  embraces  all 
we  know  of  earth  and  sky  and  life  through  the 
physical  senses. 

There  are  seven  planes  in  our  solar  system  because 

43 


44  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

of  the  seven  different  combinations  of  its  ultimate 
atoms.  Each  plane  consists  of  a  totally  different 
grade  of  matter  than  the  next  plane,  but  all  have  for 
their  base  the  ultimate  atom  of  the  solar  system. 
When  modern  science  discovered,  to  its  astonishment, 
that  the  physical  atom  was  a  composite  body  it  con- 
firmed the  theosophical  teaching  that  the  ultimate 
physical  atom  was  (not  the  final  point  of  division. 
Theosophy  teaches  that  when  the  ultimate  physical 
atom  is  disintegrated  its  particles  become  the  coarsest 
matter  of  the  next  plane  or  region  above  it — the  astral 
plane.  The  process  repeated  with  astral  matter  re- 
sults in  driving  its  ultimate  atom  from  the  highest 
level  of  the  astral  plane  or  world  to  the  lowest  of  the 
mental  plane.  That  scientist  who  said  that  the  atom 
is  the  brick  of  the  universe  stated  a  great  truth,  for 
of  its  combinations  all  forms  are  built;  and  if  the  idea 
be  applied  to  the  ultimate  atom  of  the  solar  system 
it  will  then  be  true  that  of  such  "bricks"  all  the  planes 
are  built. 

The  relationship  of  the  planes  to  each  other  is  that 
of  interpenetrating  spheres  of  matter.  The  physical 
plane,  consisting  of  the  earth  and  its  atmosphere,  is 
surrounded  and  interpenetrated  by  the  astral  plane, 
or  world,  which  is  an  enormously  larger  globe  of  ex- 
ceedingly tenuous  matter.  This  vast  sphere  of  invis- 
ible matter  is  -within  the  earth  as  well  as  beyond  it, 
interpenetrating  every  atom  of  physical  matter  to  the 
earth's  center.  Its  grossest  grade  of  matter  is  so  rare, 
and  its  vibrations  so  intense,  that  they  cannot  affect 
the  physical  senses  and  therefore  we  remain  uncon- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  45 

scious  of  it  while  that  matter  moves  freely  through 
all  physical  objects.  We  are  unconscious  of  its  life 
and  activities  for  precisely  the  same  reason  that  we 
know  nothing  of  the  messages  of  intelligence  carried 
on  the  vibrations  of  the  wireless  telegraph,  although 
they  pass  through  the  room  where  we  sit.  We  have 
no  sense  organs  with  which  it  is  possible  to  register 
such  vibrations.  Messages  conveying  intelligence  of 
tremendous  import,  involving  the  movements  of  vast 
armies,  the  fall  of  empires  and  the  destinies  of  great 
nations,  flow  through  the  very  space  we  occupy  but 
we  are  wholly  unconscious  of  them.  Even  so  we  re- 
main blind  and  deaf  to  the  stupendous  activities  of 
life  and  consciousness  in  the  astral  world,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  it  surrounds  and  permeates  us 
while  its  forms,  unseen  and  unfelt,  move  through  the 
physical  world  as  freely  as  water  flows  through  a 
sieve. 

The  mental  world  constitutes  a  region  of  our  earth 
still  more  vast  than  the  astral  portion  of  it.  As  the 
astral  sphere  encloses  the  physical  globe,  the  mental 
encompasses  both,  enclosing  them  and  also  interpene- 
trating them  to  the  earth's  center.  The  term  "mental 
world"  may  seem  confusing  to  some  because  we  are 
accustomed  to  think  of  the  mental  and  the  material  as 
being  opposites.  The  mental  world,  or  sphere,  or 
plane,  of  theosophy,  is  a  world  of  matter,  not  merely 
thought.  It  is  matter,  however,  of  such  remarkable 
tenuosity  that  it  may  properly  be  called  mind-stuff, 
and  in  its  rarest  levels  it  is  said  to  be  "formless"  so 


46  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

far  as  the  existence  of  what  the  physical  senses  know 
as  form  is  concerned. 

All  three  of  these  worlds,  or  planes — the  physical, 
astral  and  mental — are,  then,  worlds  of  mattei,  of 
form,  of  activity,  of  thought  and  of  enterprise.  They 
are  concentric  globes,  the  physical  enclosed  by  the 
astral,  and  both  physical  and  astral  enclosed  by  the 
mental.  Within  and  without  all  physical  matter  are 
both  astral  and  mental  matter.  Every  physical  atom 
is  surrounded  and  permeated  by  astral  and  mental 
matter.  The  relationship  is  precisely  that  which 
exists  between  the  ether  and  the  lower  grades  of 
physical  matter. 

If  the  relationship  of  the  three  worlds — physical, 
astral  and  mental — is  fully  understood  later  confusion 
of  thought  will  be  avoided.  Physical  language  is  not 
capable  of  fully  expressing  much  with  which  students 
of  the  occult  must  deal.  Because  there  is  nothing 
better  for  the  purpose,  words  must  be  used  that  ex- 
press but  a  part  of  the  truth  and  may  sometimes  prove 
misleading  unless  the  constitution  and  relationship 
of  the  three  spheres  is  kept  in  mind.  Thus,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  speak  of  higher  and  lower  worlds,  or  planes, 
inner  or  outer,  and  of  the  soul  coming  "down"  into 
the  material  world  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  move- 
ment m  space  is  under  consideration.  The  astral  is 
commonly  spoken  of  as  an  inner  plane  and  while  it 
truly  is  so  because  it  can  be  known  only  to  astral 
senses  by  a  withdrawal  of  the  consciousness  from 
its  exterior,  material  body,  it  is  also  true  that  the 
astral   world   is   outside   the  physical  because   it   en- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  47 

velopes  it  as  the  sea  does  a  sponge.  We  usually 
speak  of  coming  down  from  higher  planes  to  lower 
and  that  may  be  true  not  only  in  the  sense  of  chang- 
ing the  state  of  consciousness  from  higher  vibrations 
to  lower  ones  but  it  could  mean  a  journey  in  space 
from  a  point  in  the  astral  plane  above  the  physical 
globe  to  a  point  at  its  surface.  "Up"  and  "down" 
are  relative,  not  absolute.  "Down"  for  us  is  toward 
the  earth's  center  and  "up"  is  the  opposite  direction. 
A  spire  in  the  Occident  and  a  spire  in  the  Orient  are 
both  said  to  be  pointing  upward  but  they  are  point- 
ing in  opposite  directions.  On  most  parts  of  the 
earth's  surface  we  have  four  directions,  while  at  the 
poles  there  is,  of  course,  but  one  direction — south  or 
north,  as  the  case  may  be.  East,  west  and  north 
disappear  at  the  north  pole.  Reflection  upon  such 
facts  leads  one  to  at  least  faintly  comprehend  the  pos- 
sibility of  space  itself  disappearing  from  the  inner 
planes — space  as  we  know  it. 

The  matter  of  each  of  the  planes  consists  of  seven 
classes.  We  are  familiar  with  the  solids,  liquids  and 
gases  of  the  physical  plane,  and  to  them  must  be  added 
four  grades  of  the  ether.  The  seven  grades  of  matter 
of  the  astral  and  mental  worlds  constitute  an  impor- 
tant part  of  the  mechanism  for  the  soul's  evolution, 
for  they  determine  the  state  of  consciousness  in  the 
life  beyond  the  physical  plane.  But  a  study  of  those 
states  of  consciousness  belongs  to  a  later  chapter. 

A  difficulty  which  the  student  of  theosophy  should 
make  an  early  effort  to  eliminate,  is  the  tendency  to 
think  of  invisible  realms  as  unreal.     It  should  not  be 


48  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

forgotten  that  it  is  only  the  limitation  of  the  physical 
senses  that  gives  rise  to  the  feeling  of  unreality  be- 
yond the  visible.  We  should  keep  in  mind  the  fact 
that  the  invisible  realms  are  composed  of  matter  as 
certainly  as  the  air  is  matter,  or  a  stone  is  matter. 
The  water  in  a  pan  may  evaporate,  but  it  does  not 
cease  to  be  matter  because  it  has  passed  beyond  the 
ken  of  the  physical  senses.  It  will  some  time  con- 
dense once  more  and  play  its  part  as  the  liquid,  water, 
or  as  the  solid,  ice.  Only  when  matter  is  in  certain 
forms  can  we  know  of  its  existence  through  the  physi- 
cal senses. 

We  frequently  hear  people  who  are  students  of 
the  occult  speak  of  a  deceased  person  as  having  left 
the  earth.  But  passing  into  the  astral  plane,  or  world, 
is  not,  of  course,  leaving  the  earth.  Both  the  astral 
world  and  the  mental  world  are  divisions  of  the  earth. 
As  the  atmosphere  is  invisible  and  yet  is  a  part  of  the 
earth's  physical  matter,  so  the  invisible  astral  and 
mental  regions  are  other  parts  of  the  earth.  They  are 
properly  called  worlds  because  the  activities  in  con- 
sciousness that  make  up  existence  there  are  as  remote 
from  ours  as  though  they  were  upon  another  planet. 
We  have  erroneously  supposed  that  with  the  physical 
senses  we  really  see  and  know  the  earth,  whereas  we 
have  known  only  that  small  fragment  of  the  earth  that 
consists  of  physical  matter.  Beyond  the  limitation  of 
our  poor  senses  stretch  in  unsuspected  grandeur  vaster 
regions  of  our  earth,  swept  by  the  vibrations  of  an 
intenser  life. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  MECHANISM  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS 

The  soul  is  a  center  of  consciousness  within  the  all- 
consciousness,  or  the  life  of  the  solar  Logos;  an  in- 
dividualized portion  of  the  universal  mind.  That 
fragment  of  the  divine  life,  with  its  latent  God-like 
attributes,  is  expressed  through  a  mechanism  of  con- 
sciousness that  is  formed  of  the  matter  of  the  various 
planes.  Naturally  enough  it  is  expressed  more  fully 
upon  the  higher  planes  than  upon  the  lower.  At  a 
very  high  level  it  is  known  as  the  monad.  When 
it  reaches  down  into  the  higher  subdivisions  of  the 
mental  world  it  is  the  ego,  a  lesser  expression  of  the 
same  divine  life  that  pours  from  the  Logos  through 
the  monad — lesser  because  it  is  then  functioning 
through  the  denser  matter  of  a  lower  level. 

The  knowledge  that  has  been  gained  about  the 
nature  of  matter  in  recent  years  is  helpful  in  under- 
standing the  activities  of  consciousness.  The  atom  is 
found  to  be  a  center  of  force,  and  we  are  at  the  point 
where  matter,  as  we  have  known  it,  disappears.  All 
the  force  and  consciousness  of  the  solar  system  is,  of 
course,  but  the  life  of  the  Logos,  and  on  higher  planes 
the  distinctions  we  observe  here  fade  out.     Matter  be- 

49 


50  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

comes  a  very  different  thing  from  the  matter  we  know. 
The  ether  of  the  physical  world  is  almost  inconceiv- 
ably tenuous  matter.  Yet  it  is  gross  when  compared 
to  the  lowest  grade  of  astral  matter.  The  matter  of 
the  mental  world  is  enormously  rarer  than  the  most 
tenuous  matter  of  the  astral  world.  In  view  of  these 
facts  it  requires  no  stress  of  the  imagination  to  under- 
stand that  the  matter  of  the  higher  planes  is  respon- 
sive to  the  vibrations  of  consciousness. 

The  outraying  energies  of  the  individualized  center 
of  consciousness  act  upon  the  matter  of  the  plane  and 
draw  about  it  a  film  that  slowly  grows  into  a  vehicle 
through  which  consciousness  can  be  more  fully  ex- 
pressed, and  which  serves  as  a  point  of  vantage  from 
which  its  expression  can  be  extended  to  lower  planes. 

The  seven  subdivisions  of  the  mental  world  fall 
naturally  into  two  groups,  composed  of  the  three 
higher  and  the  four  lower  grades  of  matter.  The  ego, 
anchored  in  the  matter  of  the  two  planes  above  the 
mental  world,  descends  to  the  upper  levels  of  the 
mental  and  the  vesture  of  matter  with  which  it 
clothes  itself  is  known  as  the  causal  body.  Sending 
its  energies  downward,  or  outward,  to  the  lower 
levels  of  the  mental  world,  it  establishes  itself  there 
in  what  slowly  becomes  a  mental  body.  Again  in  the 
astral  world  the  process  is  repeated  and  a  vehicle  of 
consciousness  is  formed  of  astral  matter.  The 
physical  body  is  the  lowest  and  last  of  the  vehicles 
to  be  formed  and  as  it  is  slowly  built,  in  the  months 
preceding  birth,  the  matter  it  contains  falls  into  place 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  51 

under  the  operation  of  occult  laws  which  permit  no 
element  of  chance  to  enter  into  its  construction. 

Each  of  these  bodies  serves  as  a  vehicle  of  con- 
sciousness on  the  plane  to  which  it  belongs.  The 
soul  is  evolving  simultaneously  in  each  of  the  worlds, 
physical,  astral  and  mental,  and  these  various  bodies 
enable  it  to  receive  the  vibrations  of  the  plane  they 
belong  to  and  thus  to  be  conscious  there.  The 
mental  body  is  the  seat  of  intellectual  activity. 
Thought  arises  as  a  vibration  in  it  and  passes  through 
the  astral  body  into  the  physical  brain.  Whenever 
we  think  we  are  using  the  mental  body.  The  astral 
body  is  the  seat  of  emotion.  With  it  we  feel.  All 
emotion  passes  from  it  to  the  physical  body  to  be 
expressed  in  the  material  world.  The  astral  world  is 
also  called  the  emotional  world,  as  the  mental  plane 
is  called  the  mental  world.  The  physical  body  is  the 
soul's  instrument  of  action.  It  attaches  it  to  the 
physical  world,  enables  the  consciousness  to  contact 
material  objects  and  to  move  and  express  on  the 
material  plane  the  thoughts  and  emotions  generated 
in  the  mental  and  astral  bodies. 

Another  part  of  the  mechanism  of  consciousness  is 
known  as  the  etheric  double.  But  it  is  only  a  link  in 
the  chain  and  not  a  body  through  which  the  soul  can 
function.  It  is  composed  of  the  etheric  matter  of  the 
physical  world  and  connects  the  astral  body  with  the 
physical  body.  As  every  atom  of  physical  matter  is 
surrounded  and  permeated  by  etheric  matter,  it  follows 
that  the  physical  body  has  its  duplicate  in  etheric 
matter.     "Etheric  double"  is  a  very  appropriate  name 


52  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

since  it  is  a  perfect  duplicate  of  the  physical  body  in 
etheric  matter.  It  serves  the  purpose  of  supplying  the 
life  force  to  the  nervous  system  and  is  the  medium 
through  which  sensation  is  conveyed.  The  action  of 
an  anaesthetic  drives  out  so  much  of  the  matter  of 
the  etheric  double  that  the  connection  is  broken  and 
sensation  in  the  physical  body  ceases. 

One  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  getting  a  clear 
conception  of  the  constitution  of  man,  and  realizing 
that  he  is  a  soul  functioning  through  various  vehicles 
of  consciousness,  is  the  materialistic  modes  of  thought 
common  to  Occidental  civilization.  We  are  accus- 
tomed to  thinking  of  the  physical  body  itself  as  being 
the  man,  and  if  there  is  any  thought  at  all  of  the  con- 
sciousness surviving  the  death  of  the  body  it  is  very 
vague  and  indefinite  as  to  where  it  exists  and  how  it 
is  expressed.  Very  little  thinking  should  be  neces- 
sary to  show  the  absurdity  of  the  belief  that  the  body 
is  the  man.  Two  bodies  may  be  alike,  as  in  the  case 
of  twins,  but  the  souls,  the  real  men,  may  be  abso- 
lutely unlike.  The  real  man  is  superphysical.  His 
intelligence  or  his  stupidity,  his  genial  disposition  or 
his  moroseness,  his  generosity  or  his  selfishness,  are 
but  the  manifestations  of  himself  through  the  body 
by  which  they  are  expressed.  The  body  itself  is  a 
mere  aggregation  of  physical  atoms,  as  a  planet  is, 
so  organized  that  they  constitute  an  instrument  for  a 
purpose.  The  mass  of  matter  constituting  the  body 
is  a  variable  mass.  It  may  increase  or  diminish 
greatly,  but  the  man  remains  unchanged.  There  is  no 
permanent    relationship    between    the    man    and    the 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  53 

physical  matter  which  he  uses  for  his  vehicle  of  con- 
sciousness. According  to  the  physiologists  every 
atom  of  the  body  changes  within  a  period  of  a  few 
years.  The  cells  wear  out,  break  down  and  pass  away 
to  be  replaced  by  new  matter.  Not  a  particle  of  the 
physical  matter  that  was  in  our  bodies  seven  years 
ago  is  there  now,  and  none  that  is  there  now  will  re- 
main. Within  seven  years,  or  less,  we  shall  have 
bodies  composed  of  new  matter  as  certainly  as  an 
infant's  is. 

Of  course  such  reconstruction  of  the  body  does 
not  change  its  appearance.  It  is  built  on  the  same 
lines.  It  is  as  it  would  be  with  some  very  old 
cathedral.  As  the  centuries  pass  it  must  be  slowly 
rebuilt.  The  floors  wear  out  and  are  relaid.  The 
roof  serves  its  time  and  is  replaced.  The  walls 
crumble  first  in  one  place  and  then  another  until  they 
have  been  completely  reconstructed.  After  a  thou- 
sand years  has  passed  there  may  be  none  of  the  orig- 
inal material  in  the  building,  yet  its  appearance  is 
unchanged.  The  bodies  we  have  today  shall  have 
passed  away  and  will  be  growing  in  the  trees  and 
blooming  in  the  flowers  in  a  few  years.  The  bodies 
we  shall  then  have  are  now  scattered  through  the 
world.  They  will  be  brought  together  during  that  time 
and  will  come  from  many  parts  of  the  earth. 

The  physical  senses  continually  deceive  us  and 
nowhere  more  than  in  our  ideas  about  the  physical 
body.  It  is  an  unstable  mass  of  matter,  in  constant 
motion,  with  great  gulfs  of  space  between  its  atoms. 
Emerson  was  very  far  ahead  of  his  time  and  it  took 


54  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

science  a  half  century  to  catch  up  with  him  and  learn 
that  he  had  recorded  a  fact  in  nature  when  he  wrote : 

Atom  from  atom  yawns  as  far 

As  earth  from  moon,  or  star  from  star. 

In  1908  the  Scientific  American  Supplement,  com- 
menting on  our  reconstructed  ideas  about  matter,  re- 
marked that  the  actual  mass  of  the  physical  body  to 
the  apparent  mass  was  about  one  to  one  million! 

If  the  physical  body  is  merely  an  organized  mass 
of  matter,  continually  varying,  constantly  coming  and 
going,  and  having  no  permanent  relationship  to  the 
consciousness  that  functions  through  it,  what  reason 
is  there  for  believing  that  it  is  the  man?  Does  it  seem 
strange  that  the  center  of  consciousness  should  be 
able  to  draw  about  itself  on  the  higher  planes  aggre- 
gations of  matter  and  finally  to  express  itself  on  the 
material  plane  through  the  mass  of  matter  we  call 
the  body?  If  that  is  mysterious  quite  as  miraculous 
things  are  going  on  constantly  about  us  unnoticed. 
Thoreau  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  we  become 
so  accustomed  to  the  marvelous  expressions  of  life  all 
about  us  that  we  are  oblivious  of  the  phenomena  that 
are  taking  place.  Commenting  on  the  magic  possible 
to  nature  he  says: 

"Though  I  do  not  believe  that  a  plant  will 
spring  up  where  no  seed  has  been,  I  have  great 
faith  in  a  seed — a,  to  me,  equally  mysterious 
origin  for  it.  Convince  me  that  you  have  a  seed 
there,  and  I  am  prepared  to  expect  wonders.  .  . 
In  the  spring  of  1857  I  planted  six  seeds  sent  to 
me  from  the  Patent  Office,  and  labeled,  I  think, 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  55 

Toitrine  jaune  grosse,'  large  yellow  squash.  Two 
came  up,  and  one  bore  a  squash  which  weighed 
123^2  pounds,  the  other  bore  four,  weighing  to- 
gether 186>4  pounds.  Who  would  have  believed 
that  there  was  310  pounds  of  poitrine  jaune  grosse 
in  that  corner  of  my  garden?  These  seeds  were 
the  bait  I  used  to  catch  it,  my  ferrets  which  I 
sent  into  its  burrow,  my  brace  of  terriers  which 

unearthed  it Other  seeds  I  have  which 

will  find  other  things  in  that  corner  of  my  garden. 
Perfect  alchemists  I  keep  who  can  transmute  sub- 
stances without  end,  and  thus  the  corner  of  my 
garden  is  an  inexhaustible  treasure-chest.  Here 
you  can  dig,  not  gold,  but  the  value  which  gold 
merely  represents;  and  there  is  no  Signor  Blitz 
about  it.  Yet  farmer's  sons  will  stare  by  the  hour 
to  see  a  juggler  draw  ribbons  from  his  throat, 
though  he  tells  them  it  is  all  deception.  Surely, 
men  love  darkness  rather  than  light."* 

A  seed  is  a  center  of  force  through  which  life,  at  a 
much  lower  level  than  the  human,  flows  and  gathers 
about  that  center  the  material  mass  that  serves  the 
purpose  of  its  lowly  evolution.  At  the  human  level 
consciousness  has  become  self-consciousness  and  a 
marvelously  complex  merchanism  is  required  to  ex- 
press it  and  serve  the  purpose  of  its  farther  evolution. 

This  complex  mechanism  of  consciousness,  com- 
posed of  the  various  bodies  through  which  the  ego 
expresses  itself  at  different  levels,  is  used  as  a  whole 
for  functioning  on  the  physical  plane.  But  when  the 
ego  is  functioning  no  farther  down  than  the-  astral 

*The  Succession  of  Forest  Trees. — Thoreau. 


56  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

plane,  the  physical  body  is,  of  course,  temporarily 
discarded.  It  is  then  in  the  condition  known  as  sleep, 
or  trance.  Sleep  is  the  natural  withdrawing  of  the 
consciousness  from  the  physical  body.  When  the 
separation  occurs  in  the  case  of  the  medium  it  is  called 
a  trance.  The  cause  of  the  inert  condition  of  the 
physical  body  is  the  same  in  both  cases — the  with- 
drawal of  the  consciousness  of  the  ego.  The  physical 
body  is  then  unoccupied,  but  the  consciousness  main- 
tains magnetic  connection  with  it.  In  death  that  tie 
is  severed  and  the  consciousness  can  return  to  the 
body  no  more.  Instances  in  which  the  apparently 
dead  are  brought  back  to  life  are  cases  where  the 
magnetic  tie  is  not  broken,  notwithstanding  there  is 
every  appearance  of  death. 

In  form  and  feature  the  physical  body  has  its  exact 
duplicate  in  the  astral  body,  and  in  it  we  function 
in  the  astral  world  whenever  the  separation  between 
the  two  occurs,  whether  from  sleep  or  death.  In 
sleep  the  consciousness,  expressing  itself  in  the  astral 
body  in  the  astral  world,  may  be  turned  dreamily  in- 
ward or  it  may  be  turned  outward  and  be  .vividly 
aware  of  the  life  and  activities  of  that  world.  But 
there  is  small  chance  that  any  memory  of  it  will  come 
through  into  the  physical  consciousness  upon  awaken- 
ing. Occasionally,  however,  it  does  occur  and  then 
it  is  usually  remembered  as  a  very  vivid  dream.  In 
illness,  and  other  abnormal  conditions,  the  connec- 
tion between  the  physical  and  astral  consciousness  is 
much  closer.  At  a  comparatively  high  point  in  evo- 
lution the  two  states  of  consciousness  merge.     The 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  57 

man  is  then  continuously  conscious,  and  has  a  full 
memory  in  the  physical  brain  of  all  his  activities  in 
the  astral  world  during  the  hours  when  the  physical 
body  was  asleep. 

Consciousness  is,  of  course,  at  its  worst  when  ex- 
pressed through  the  limitation  of  its  lower  vehicles. 
Any  person,  whether  brilliant  or  stupid,  will  be  much 
abler  and  keener  on  the  astral  plane  than  on  the 
physical,  because  in  sleep,  and  after  death,  he  has  lost 
the  limitations  imposed  by  physical  matter.  But  the 
degree  of  restriction  is  variable  and  depends  much 
upon  the  kind  of  matter  of  which  the  brain  and  body 
are  composed;  for  the  physical  atoms  vary  greatly, 
and  as  they  come  and  go  in  the  passing  years  the 
body  may  either  become  purified  and  refined  or  it 
may  grow  grosser  and  coarser.  By  careful  attention 
to  food  and  drink,  and  by  control  of  the  emotions, 
the  limitations  of  physical  matter  may  be  lessened 
and  a  much  higher  and  more  efficient  state  of  con- 
sciousness in  the  physical  body  can  be  attained. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DEATH 

Perhaps  one  of  the  reasons  why  death  is  so  com- 
monly associated  with  a  feeling  of  fear  is  because  we 
give  so  little  thought  to  it.  Most  people  seem  never 
to  think  of  the  subject  at  all  until  death  invades  the 
home  and  threatens  some  member  of  the  family. 
Then  terror  fills  the  mind  and  all  but  paralyzes  the 
reasoning  faculties. 

Such  fear  of  death,  so  widespread  in  Occidental 
civilization,  is  eloquent  testimony  to  the  materialism 
of  our  times.  It  is  doubt  about  the  future  that 
causes  fear  of  death.  Only  when  we  have  a  scientific 
basis  for  the  hope  of  immortality  will  the  awful  fear 
of  death  disappear.  It  is  feared  because  it  seems  like 
annihilation.  If  people  really  believed  in  a  heavenly 
existence  beyond  the  physical  life  they  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  filled  with  terror  at  the  prospect  of  enter- 
ing it.  If  a  man's  religion  has  not  given  him  a  gen- 
uine confidence  in  a  future  life,  and  made  it  as  much 
of  a  reality  to  him  as  this  life  is,  it  has  failed  to  do 
what  we  have  a  right  to  demand  of  religion.  If  it 
does  not  enable  him  to  look  upon  the  face  of  his  dead 
without  a  doubt,  or  a  fear,  there  is  something  wrong, 

59 


60  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

either  with  his  religion  or  with  his  comprehension  of 
it.  What  possible  reason  is  there  for  fearing  death? 
A  thing  that  is  universal,  that  comes  to  all,  can  not 
be  pernicious.  To  regard  death  as  a  disastrous  thing 
would  be  an  indictment  of  the  sanity  of  nature. 

Death  is  merely  the  close  of  a  particular  cycle  of 
experience.  It  is  the  annihilation  of  nothing  but  the 
physical,  body,  in  its  aspect  of  an  instrument  of  ac- 
tivity and  a  vehicle  of  the  consciousness  upon  the 
physical  plane.  The  atoms  of  the  body,  drawn  to- 
gether in  the  human  form  for  temporary  use,  are,  in 
death,  released  from  the  cohesive  force  of  a  living 
organism  and  will  return  whence  they  came. 

In  reality  there  is  no  such  thing  as  death,  unless 
it  be  strictly  applied  to  the  form,  regarded  as  a  tempo- 
rary vehicle  of  consciousness.  As  for  the  conscious- 
ness, there  is  no  death.  There  is  life  in  a  physical 
form  and  life  out  of  it,  but  no  such  thing  as  the  death, 
or  cessation,  of  the  individual  intelligence.  What  we 
name  "death"  is  but  a  change  in  the  orderly  evolu- 
tion of  life,  and  it  is  only  because  the  phenomenon  is 
viewed  from  the  physical  plane  that  such  a  term 
can  be  applied  to  it.  From  this  plane  it  is  death,  or 
departure.  But  looked  at  from  the  astral  world  it 
is  birth,  or  arrival.  What  we  call  birth  is  the  be- 
ginning of  the  expression  of  the  soul  through  a  ma- 
terial body  on  the  physical  plane.  It  is  an  arrival. 
But  from  the  astral  viewpoint  it  is  a  departure  and 
therefore  is  as  logically  a  "death"  there  as  departure 
from  a  physical  body  is  here.  So  death  and  departure 
from  one  plane  is  simply  birth,  or  arrival,  upon  an- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  61 

other,  although  it  is  not,  of  course,  birth  as  we  know 
it. 

Every  process  in  nature  has  a  part  to  play  in 
evolution  and  therefore  death  is  as  necessary  as  life 
and  as  beneficial  as  birth.  Death  is  the  destroyer  of 
the  useless.  There  is  a  time  when  each  human  being 
should  die — that  is  to  say,  a  time  when  the  physical 
body  has  fulfilled  its  mission  and  completely  accom- 
plished the  purpose  for  which  it  exists.  To  continue 
life  in  a  physical  body  beyond  that  point  is  to  waste 
energy  and  lose  time  in  the  evolutionary  journey. 
Under  the  action  of  what  we  call  "diseases"  the  body 
becomes  inefficient,  or  through  the  gradual  breaking 
down  of  old  age  the  senses  grow  dim  and  uncertain. 
The  consciousness  can  no  longer  be  keenly  expressed 
through  its  impaired  machine  and  it  is  decidedly  to 
the  advantage  of  the  ego  to  withdraw  from  it.  The 
soul  is  in  the  position  of  an  artisan  obliged  to  work 
with  broken  and  rusted  tools.  Good  results  are  no 
longer  possible.  It  is  then  that  death  comes,  benefi- 
cently destroying  the  worn  out  instrument  and  re- 
leasing the  consciousness  from  its  too-often  painful 
situation  and  permitting  its  escape  into  a  field  of 
unobstructed  activity. 

Death  is  painless.  The  breaking  down  of  the 
body  under  the  ravages  of  disease  may  cause  pain, 
but  that  belongs  to  physical  life,  not  death.  Distress 
may  also  be  caused  by  groundless  fear  of  death.  But 
the  dying  person  who  does  not  know  that  death  is 
upon  him  has  no  terror,  and  no  pain,  and  sinks  quietly 
to  sleep.     Very  little  observation  will  convince   one 


62  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

that  the  distress  about  a  death-bed  is  invariably  on 
the  part  of  surviving  friends,  not  on  the  part  of  the 
dying.  Those  who  are  left  behind  remain  within  the 
limitations  of  the  physical  senses,  and  they  are  there- 
fore separated  from  the  so-called  dead  man,  but  he 
is  not  separated  from  them.  It  is  because  of  that 
separation  that  the  terror  of  death  exists  for  them. 
But  in  that  very  fact  is  to  be  seen  the  great  evo- 
lutionary value  of  death.  The  separation  it  causes 
intensifies  love  as  nothing  else  could  do.  It  is  only 
when  our  friend  is  gone  that  we  begin  to  appreciate 
his  real  value  and  comprehend  how  large  a  part  he 
really  played  in  our  existence.  As  sudden  silence 
gives  the  consciousness  a  keener  realization  of  the 
sound  that  has  just  ceased,  so  death,  by  its  contrast, 
gives  a  vivid,  realistic  touch  to  life.  We  all  know 
how  enormously  the  heart  qualities  are  quickened  by 
the  death  of  a  close  friend.  The  whole  nature  is  in 
some  degree  purified  and  spiritualized.  Selfishness  is 
decreased  and  compassion  expands.  Sympathy  for 
others  in  distress  is  born,  and  thus  a  decided  evolu- 
tionary advance  is  made.  We  have  only  to  reflect 
upon  the  fact  that  separation  without  death  produces 
the  same  effects  in  a  minor  key,  to  realize  the  evolu- 
tionary value  of  death.  In  constant  association  we 
grow  careless  and  indifferent.  But  an  absence  of  a 
month  or  two  enables  one  to  get  a  truer  perspective 
of  personal  associations  and  thereafter  life  has  new 
zest.  A  child  regards  its  mother  with  a  certain  de- 
gree of  appreciation  but  a  short  absence  enormously 
increases  its  appreciation.       All  human  beings  come 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  63 

into  closer  and  more  sympathetic  association  after  a 
period  of  separation,  and  the  completeness  of  the 
separation  caused  by  death  renders  it  peculiarly 
efficacious  in  the  development  of  the  spiritual  side  of 
one's  nature.  It  oftens  requires  death  to  turn  atten- 
tion away  from  materialistic  life.  Frequently  a 
family  becomes  completely  absorbed  in  material  suc- 
cess. There  is  no  thought  at  all  given  to  the  higher 
life.  Wealth,  position,  power,  fame,  all  the  vanities 
of  the  world,  hold  them  firmly.  They  become  com- 
pletely self-centered.  Then  suddenly  death  enters  and 
breaks  the  family  circle,  and  the  transient  character 
of  all  they  had  been  so  strenuously  striving  for  sud- 
denly dawns  upon  them,  and  attention  is  turned  to 
the  nobler  things  of  life.  It  is  a  well  known  fact 
that  great  wars  are  accompanied  or  followed  with 
widespread  spiritual  awakening,  and  it  is  no  doubt 
largely  because  the  shadow  of  death  has  fallen  on 
tens  of  thousands  of  households. 

It  has  sometimes  been  asked  by  doubtful  critics 
if  it  would  not  be  an  improvement  on  nature's  plan 
if  the  sorrow  caused  by  the  death  of  our  friends  were 
softened  by  direct  knowledge  of  their  continued  exist- 
ence. It  is  evidently  the  plan  of  nature  to  have  the 
physical  life  and  the  astral  life  normally  separated  at 
our  present  level  of  evolution.  Some  of  the  reasons 
have  already  been  discussed.  There  are  undoubtedly 
others  that  we  are  incapable  of  understanding,  and 
still  others  that  we  can  readily  comprehend.  If  the 
higher,  joyous  life  of  the  astral  world  were  open  to 
our  consciousness,  then  concentration  upon  the  duties 


64  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

of  this  life  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible.  Our 
life  in  the  physical  body  may  be  compared  to  the 
tasks  of  children  in  school.  They  have  serious  busi- 
ness before  them  in  the  acquiring  of  knowledge  and 
the  development  of  the  intellect.  They  can  best  ac- 
complish the  work  when  completely  isolated  from 
other  phases  of  life.  Introduce  into  their  work-day 
consciousness  the  joys  of  a  child's  existence,  the  cir- 
cus, the  military  parade,  the  picnic  and  the  dancing 
parties,  and  the  purpose  for  which  the  school  exists 
would  be  defeated.  To  exactly  the  extent  that  the 
consciousness  is  withdrawn  from  such  things  will  de- 
sirable progress  be  made  with  the  work  of  the  school- 
room. And  so  it  is  with  the  limitation  of  our  physical 
senses.     It  serves  a  purpose. 

But  there  is  a  point  in  human  evolution  where 
such  limitation  of  the  senses  is  no  longer  of  any  serv- 
ice and  may  be  transcended.  Some  people  have  at- 
tained it.  They  are  those  who  have  previously  been 
referred  to  as  the  psychic  scientists,  with  the  higher 
clairvoyance  of  the  cerebro-spinal  system  developed. 
It  is  an  accomplishment  to  which  all  may  aspire. 
None  need  submit  to  the  separation  commonly  caused 
by  death.  By  hard  work  in  co-operating  with  nature's 
methods  of  evolution  and  by  a  serious  and  sustained 
effort  to  live  the  highest  and  most  helpful  life  of 
which  one  is  capable,  it  is  possible  in  time  to  attain 
a  level  of  consciousness  where  one  has  personal 
knowledge  that  the  dead  still  live.  But  in  the  very 
work    of    rising    to    that    level,    the     concentration 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  65 

previously  enforced  by  the  limitation  of  the  physical 
senses  will  have  been  acquired. 

One  of  the  common  delusions  about  death  is  that 
some  radical  change  in  the  nature  of  a  person  then 
takes  place.  This  is  no  doubt  due  in  part  to  the 
theological  ideas  that  have  come  down  to  us  from  the 
time  of  the  Middle  i^es.  It  is  popularly  supposed 
that  at  death  one  conies  to  some  sort  of  a  judgment 
that  classes  him  as  either  a  saint  qualified  for  eternal 
bliss  or  a  fiend  fit  only  for  endless  torture !  The 
belief  is  based  on  that  erroneous  view  of  human  na- 
ture that  was  common  to  the  melodrama  of  a  past 
generation  and  that  will  possibly  have  eternal  life  in 
the  cheap  novel.  It  represented  the  hero  as  unquali- 
fiedly good  and  the  villain  as  absolutely  bad.  The 
one  had  no  flaw  of  character  and  the  other  had  not 
a  redeeming  feature.  But  human  nature  does  not 
thus  express  itself.  The  spark  of  divine  life  is  in  all, 
notwithstanding  it  is  sometimes  darkly  hidden.  On 
the  other  hand  we  find  no  perfected  beings.  The  per- 
fect heroes  were  merely  creations  of  an  imperfect  im- 
agination. At  our  halfway  stage  of  evolution  we  find 
neither  the  absolutely  good  nor  the  hopelessly  bad. 

Why  should  the  change  we  call  death  transform 
a  human  being?  It  is  merely  the  loss  of  one  part  of 
the  mechanism  of  consciousness.  The  soul,  the 
thinker,  has  lost  connection  with  the  physical  world 
because  the  physical  body  has  ceased  to  exist.  The 
mental  body  and  the  astral  body  remain  and  they 
enable  him  to  think  and  feel.  But  he  can  not  think 
more  than  he  knows,  nor  feel  what  he  has  not  evolved. 


66  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

All  that  has  happened  in  death  is  that  contact  with 
the  material  world  has  been  lost. 

One  of  the  misconceptions  is  that  death  brings 
great  wisdom,  and  we  often  hear  of  people  getting 
into  communication  with  those  who  have  passed  on, 
with  the  hope  of  obtaining  ^aluable  advice.  It  is 
true  that  death  ushers  one  intc'a  realm  of  wider  con- 
sciousness and  that  in  the  astral  world  one  can  see  a 
little  further  ahead  and  take  a  few  more  things  into 
consideration.  But — and  it  is  a  vital  point — he  would 
have  no  better  judgment  in  determining  a  course 
of  action  than  he  had  while  here  in  the  physical 
world. 

Both  mentally  and  emotionally  he  is  unchanged. 
His  grade  of  morality  is  neither  better  nor  worse. 
His  tolerance  or  narrowness  remains  what  it  previ- 
ously was.  If  he  was  bigoted  while  here  he  is  still 
bigoted  there.  If  he  was  the  unevolved  ignoramus 
here  he  remains  precisely  that  in  the  astral  world. 
Whether  genius  or  fool,  saint  or  villain,  he  remains 
unchanged  and  goes  on  with  his  evolutionary  devel- 
opment, but  in  a  world  where  emotion  is  the  deter- 
mining factor. 

Death  merely  opens  the  door  to  a  new  and  wider 
realm  where  the  evolution  of  the  soul  proceeds.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  say  which  is  the  greater  mis- 
fortune— the  delusions  that  make  death  the  king  of 
terrors,  or  the  complacent  belief  that  if  death  does 
not  end  all,  it  at  least  brings  the  soul  to  a  judgment 
that  ends  all  personal  responsibility  and  settles  one's 
fate  forever.     Death  can  no  more  lessen  responsibility 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  67 

or  transform  the  moral  nature  than  sleep  can  change 
character  or  determine  destiny. 

The  theosophical  conception  of  death  is  as  consol- 
ing- as  it  is  scientific.  Instead  of  the  fear  of  death 
it  gives  us  knowledge  of  continued  life.  Instead  of 
doubt  and  despair  it  gives  us  confidence  and  joy,  for 
it  guarantees  the  companionship  once  more  of  those 
we  have  known  and  loved,  and  erroneously  supposed 
we  have  lost. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  ASTRAL  WORLD 

When  the  physical  body  dies  there  is  an  interval  be- 
tween the  loss  of  consciousness  here  and  the  dawning 
of  the  astral  consciousness.  During  that  interim  a  review 
of  the  life  scenes  takes  place.  Everything  between  birth 
and  death  passes  again  through  the  consciousness,  as 
it  thus  pauses  in  the  etheric  double,  between  the  life 
activities  of  two  worlds.  Then  peaceful  unconsciousness 
follows,  from  which  the  man  awakes  in  the  astral  world. 

To  those  accustomed  to  thinking  of  the  dying  as  pass- 
ing to  some  remote  heaven,  where  they  become  angels, 
it  will  perhaps  sound  startling  to  say  that  a  dead  man 
is  not  aware  at  first  that  the  change  we  call  death  has 
taken  place.  Yet  that  is  a  common  experience.  Nor  is  it  at 
all  remarkable  that  it  should  be  so  with  many.  We  have 
only  to  recall  the  fact  that  all  physical  matter  is  sur- 
rounded and  permeated  with  astral  matter  to  realize  that 
the  physical  plane  is  duplicated  in  astral  matter.  Not 
only  the  physical  body  of  the  human  being  but,  of  course, 
every  physical  object,  has  its  astral  duplicate.  The 
dying  man  loses  consciousness  of  the  physical  plane  and 
awakes  as  from  a  sleep  to  the  astral  consciousness.  He 
sees  then  the  exact  duplicate,  in  astral  matter,  of  the 

69 


70  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

familiar  scenes  he  has  left  behind.  He  sees,  too,  his 
friends,  for  their  astral  bodies  are  replicas  of  their 
physical  forms. 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  all  this  there  is  a  difference, 
though  not  a  difference  that  enables  him  to  comprehend 
what  has  occurred.  He  may  know  that  only  yesterday, 
or  what  seems  to  him  to  have  been  yesterday,  he  was  ill 
and  confined  to  his  bed,  and  was  perhaps  told  that  he 
was  about  to  die ;  and  now  he  is  not  ill ;  indeed,  he  never 
felt  so  free  from  aches  and  pains  in  all  his  life.  The 
pulsing  energies  and  exhilaration  of  youth  are  his  again ! 
This  mystifies  him.  He  sees  his  friends  and  naturally 
speaks  to  them,  but  gets  no  reply  and  finds  that  he  can 
not  attract  their  attention.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
he  can  not  see  their  physical  bodies  any  more  than  they 
can  see  his  astral  body.  Yet  he  truly  sees  them.  If  a 
so-called  dead  man  and  a  living  person  look  at  the  same 
instant  at  another  living  person  they  will  both  see  him, 
but  the  latter  sees  the  physical  body  while  the  former 
sees  the  astral  body  that  surrounds  and  permeates  it. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  strange  that  the 
new  arrival  in  the  astral  world  is  seized  with  a  feeling 
of  baffling  mystery.  He  is  in  full  possession  of  his 
reasoning  faculties,  and  will  power,  but  there  is  a  puzz- 
ling limitation  to  his  efforts  to  produce  expected  results. 
A  partial  analogy  may  be  found  in  the  case  of  a  person 
suddenly  stricken  with  aphasia  over  night.  He  rises  in 
the  morning,  dresses,  and  goes  about  his  accustomed 
duties  without  the  slightest  suspicion  that  any  change  has 
come  to  him  until  he  takes  up  the  morning  paper  and 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  71 

discovers  that  he  can  not  read — that  the  familiar  print 
simply  means  nothing  to  him ! 

Of  course,  in  time  the  living  dead  man  gets  adjusted 
to  the  new  life.  He  soon  meets  others  in  the  astral 
world  who  have  been  there  longer  and  they,  sooner  or 
later,  succeed  in  convincing  him  that  he  is  not  having 
an  exceptionally  vivid  dream. 

The  astral  world,  as  explained  in  a  previous  chapter, 
has  seven  subdivisions  and  the  astral  body  contains  mat- 
ter belonging  to  each  of  them.  While  we  have  the 
physical  body  the  matter  of  the  astral  body  is  in  rapid 
circulation,  every  grade  of  it  being  constantly  repre- 
sented at  the  surface.  But  when  the  connection  with  the 
material  plane  is  broken,  a  rearrangement  of  the  matter 
of  the  astral  body  automatically  takes  place  (unless  it  is 
prevented  by  an  exercise  of  will  power)  and  the  grossest 
grade  of  matter  thereafter  occupies  its  surface.  Con- 
sequently the  consciousness  of  the  man  is  limited  to  that 
subdivision  of  the  astral  world  represented  by  the  lowest 
grade  of  matter  which  his  astral  body  contains  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  This  is  a  fact  the  importance  of 
which  it  would  be  difficult  to  over  emphasize,  because 
his  after-death  state  of  consciousness,  his  joy  or  sorrow 
— in  short,  his  temporary  heaven  or  hell,  depends  upon 
his  location  in  the  astral  world. 

There  are  three,  and  only  three  modes  of  death, 
or  release  from  the  physical  body — by  old  age,  by  disease, 
or  by  violence.  Old  age  is  the  natural  and  desirable 
close  of  the  chapter  of  physical  plane  experience.  It  is 
most  desirable  to  live  to  ripe  old  age  and  accumulate  a 
large  harvest  of  experience.     To  live  long  and  actively 


72  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

is  excellent  fortune.  It  is  not  well  to  pass  into  the  astral 
world  with  strong  physical  desires.  As  old  age  comes 
on  the  desire  forces  subside.  Most  of  that  grade  of 
astral  matter  that  is  capable  of  expressing  them  has 
slowly  disappeared.  Old  age  represents  the  most  gradual 
loosening  of  the  life  forces  from  the  material  plane,  and 
that  has  many  advantages. 

Release  from  the  physical  body  by  disease  is  next 
in  order  of  desirability.  It  is  a  quicker  and  less  com- 
plete breaking  down  of  the  connection  with  the  physical 
world.  Nevertheless  it  is  a  condition  in  which  much 
progress  may  be  made  in  getting  free  from  physical  de- 
sires, as  those  who  have  had  experience  with  invalids 
are  aware.  Desires  usually  grow  weaker  with  the  prog- 
ress of  the  disease  that  finally  ends  in  death. 

Release  from  the  physical  form  by  violence  is,  of 
course,  the  least  desirable  of  the  three,  not  merely  be- 
cause it  is  violence,  but  for  the  much  more  important 
reason  that  sudden  death  finds  the  man,  as  a  rule,  with 
a  considerable  amount  of  the  lower  grades  of  astral 
matter  in  his  astral  body. 

Whether  the  death  by  violence  is  the  result  of  ac- 
cident, murder,  suicide  or  legal  execution,  the  astral 
plane  conditions  of  consciousness  are  alike  unfortunate, 
in  that  it  is  sudden  death,  not  the  manner  of  death,  that 
permits  entry  upon  the  astral  life  before  the  lower 
grades  of  astral  matter  have  been  eliminated  from  the 
astral  body.  This  is  one  reason  why  suicide  is  unfor- 
tunate— because  it  ushers  the  man  into  the  astral  world 
with  more  of  the  matter  of  the  lower  levels  in  his  astral 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  73 


vehicle  than  would  be  there  if  he  had  lived  out  his  normal 
physical  life. 

Purgatory  is  a  term  often  applied  to  the  lowest  level 
of  the  astral  world.  The  word  is  well  chosen  because 
it  is  there  that  the  moral  nature  is  purged  of  its  impuri- 
ties. Strong  desires  cultivated  and  indulged  during  the 
life  in  the  physical  body  are  eliminated  with  the  gross 
astral  matter  through  which  alone  they  can  be  expressed 
and,  freed  to  that  extent,  the  man  passes  to  the  next 
subdivision,  and  into  its  higher  state  of  consciousness. 

In  the  astral  life  some  people  linger  long  on  the 
lower  levels  while  others  know  them  not  at  all,  but 
awaken  to  the  blissful  consciousness  of  the  higher  subdi- 
visions. Nature  is  everywhere  consistent,  grouping  to- 
gether people  of  a  kind.  It  is,  however,  the  manner  in 
which  one  lives  during  physical  life  that  determines  his 
happiness  or  sorrow  after  death.  The  astral  body,  the 
seat  of  the  emotions,  is,  like  the  physical  body,  constantly 
changing  the  matter  that  composes  it.  An  emotion  of 
any  kind  expresses  itself  as  a  vibration  in  the  matter  of 
the  astral  body.  If  it  is  a  base  emotion,  such  as  anger, 
hatred,  lust  or  cruelty,  it  throws  into  vibration  the  gross- 
est of  the  astral  body's  matter,  for  only  in  that  can  it  be 
expressed.  If  it  is  an  exalted  emotion,  such  as  love, 
sympathy,  devotion,  courage  or  benevolence,  it  affects 
only  the  rarer  grades  of  astral  matter,  for  in  them  only 
can  such  feeling  be  expressed. 

With  most  people  there  is  a  constant  mingling  of  a 
wide  range  of  emotions,  with  a  gain  in  one  direction 
and  a  loss  in  another.  One  who  fortunately  understands 
the  law  of  emotional  cause  and  effect  may  make  absolutely 


74  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

certain  of  a  comfortable  sojourn  upon  the  astral  plane 
after  death.  He  would  make  it  a  rule  to  watch  his 
emotions  and  control  them,  knowing  that  each  time  he 
indulged  a  gross  one  the  vibration  set  up  in  his  astral 
body  would  strengthen  and  vivify  the  grossest  grade  of 
matter  in  it,  while  pure  and  exalted  emotions  would 
strengthen  the  higher  grades.  Ultimately,  the  grossest 
grade,  becoming  atrophied  for  the  lack  of  activity,  would 
drop  away  from  him. 

The  descriptions  of  purgatory  given  by  the  psychic 
scientists  are  calculated  to  induce  even  the  reckless  to 
avoid  it.  If  we  could  bring  together  all  the  vilest  men 
and  women  now  living  on  the  physical  plane,  the  crudest 
of  murderers,  the  most  besotted  drunkards,  the  vilest 
,  degenerates,  the  most  conscienceless  and  vindictive  fiends 
of  every  description,  and  huddle  them  together  in  hovels 
reeking  with  filth,  and  let  them  remain  without  any  out- 
ward government,  free  to  prey  upon  each  other,  we 
should  perhaps  have  a  faint  comprehension  of  the  reality 
of  the  lowest  subdivision  of  the  astral  world.  But  no 
physical  plane  comparison  can  do  it  full  justice,  for  we 
must  remember  that  it  is  the  emotional  world  and  that 
the  feelings  of  its  inhabitants  make  its  atmosphere  in  a 
way  that  would  here  be  impossible.  Astral  matter  in- 
stantly and  exactly  repreduces  emotion,  so  that  the  fiend 
or  the  sensualist  looks  exactly  what  he  feels.  Even  in 
the  unresponsive  physical  matter,  the  evil  in  a  man  is 
often  sufficiently  expressed  to  fill  those  who  behold  him 
with  terror.  In  the  astral  world  every  cruel  thought 
and  hideous  emotion  would  express  itself  in  visible  form 
and  the  multitudinous  emotions  welling  up  in  the  lower 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  75 


level  of  the  astral  world  would  be  as  a  loathsome  swarm 
of  reptiles  gliding  through  its  horrible  life.  Add  to  all 
that  the  fact  that  the  hopeless  despair  of  its  denizens 
gives  an  atmosphere  of  utter  gloom  and  desolation,  and 
we  have  a  hell  that  leaves  no  need  of  other  torture  to 
check  the  course  of  the  erring  soul.  And  yet  there  is 
no  suffering  that  is  not  self-imposed.  It  is  both  con- 
sistent and  just  that  a  man  should  associate  with  his 
kind  and  look  upon  himself  in  others  until  he  grows 
sick  of  his  own  vileness  and  cries  out  in  agony  of  spirit 
against  his  own  moral  offenses.  It  must  not  be  assumed 
that  every  person  dying  with  considerable  matter  be- 
longing to  the  lower  astral  level  still  within  his  emotional 
body  will  necessarily  pass  through  such  experiences.  It 
should  never  be  forgotten  that  we  are  dealing  with  a 
matter  of  the  utmost  complexity  and  that  even  the  most 
exhaustive  description  in  print  would  present  only  a 
fragment  of  the  truth.  The  conditions  of  consciousness 
on  any  subplane  vary  as  individuals  vary.  Some  peo- 
ple on  the  lowest  astral  level  are  wholly  unconscious  of 
their  surroundings.  Another  variation  is  that  some  peo- 
ple find  themselves  floating  in  darkness  and  largely  cut 
off  from  others — a  sufficiently  undesirable  condition,  and 
yet  better  than  the  fate  of  some.  All  states  of 
astral  consciousness  are  reactions  from  previous  good 
or  evil  conduct  and  are,  moreover,  temporary  con- 
ditions that  will  in  time  be  left  behind. 

In  a  different  way  and  at  a  higher  level  there  may 
be  suffering  on  the  astral  plane  that  is  purifying  the 
nature.  Not  all  offenses  against  nature's  laws  are  of 
so  gross  a  type.     There  is  the  abuse  of  desire  and  the 


76  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

violation  of  conscience  that  may  result  in  various 
kinds  of  regret  and  emotional  distress.  A  desire  of 
a  refined  type  strongly  built  up  upon  the  physical  plane 
lives  with  an  intenser  vitality  on  the  astral  plane  after 
the  physical  body  can  no  longer  gratify  it.  A  glutton 
and  a  miser  have  strong  desires  of  a  very  different 
type.  Each  of  them  is  likely  to  suffer  on  account  of  it 
during  the  astral  life.  They  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
lowest  level  to  get  a  reaction  from  their  folly  in  the 
physical  life.  We  can  easily  imagine  the  distress  of  the 
glutton  in  a  world  without  food.  There  could  be  no 
distress  because  of  hunger,  for  the  astral  body  is  not, 
like  the  physical  body,  renewed  and  maintained  by  what 
it  consumes.  But  hunger  and  the  gratification  of  the 
sense  of  taste  are  very  different  things.  It  is  the  latter 
that  would  trouble  the  gormand,  and  it  is  said  that 
great  suffering,  as  in  the  case  of  the  drunkard,  is  his 
lot  until  the  desire  gradually  disappears  because  of  the 
impossibility  of  its  gratification. 

The  miser  represents  a  subtler  form  of  desire,  but  his 
greed  for  gold  may  be  quite  as  intense  as  that  of  the 
glutton  for  sensual  gratification.  The  accumulation  of 
money  has  been  the  dominant  thought  of  his  life.  He 
has  created  in  his  mind  a  wholly  false  value  for  money 
and  it  gives  him  real  pain  to  part  with  a  dollar  of  it. 
Only  dire  necessity  forces  him  to  spend  any  portion  of 
his  hoard.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  his  emotions  when 
he  is  obliged  to  leave  it  behind  and  see  others  spend  it 
freely. 

Any  kind  of  a  desire  that  is  related  to  the  physical 
body   is    without   means  of   gratification   in   the   astral 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  77 


world  and  if  such  desire  has  been  cultivated  until  it 
becomes  strong  enough  to  play  an  important  part  in  one's 
life  it  will  certainly  give  him  more  or  less  trouble  after 
the  loss  of  the  physical  body.  Whether  it  grows  out  of 
an  over-refinement  and  excess  in  a  natural  appetite,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  epicure,  or  is  simply  an  artificial  thing 
that  is  unrelated  to  any  natural  demand,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  smoker,  the  inability  to  gratify  the  desire  is 
equally  distressing.  The  suffering  that  results  could 
hardly  be  judged  by  what  would  follow  on  the  physical 
plane  when  desire  is  thwarted,  for  in  the  astral  life 
emotion  expresses  itself  much  more  intensely. 

All  of  the  suffering  in  the  astral  world,  of  whatever 
type,  is  the  natural  result  of  the  thoughts,  emotions  and 
acts  during  the  life  on  the  physical  plane.  The  astral 
world  is  that  part  of  the  mechanism  for  man's  evolution 
that  brings  him  up  with  a  sharp  turn  when  he  is  moving 
in  the  wrong  direction.  He  is  not  being  punished.  The 
injurious  forces  he  has  generated  are  simply  reacting 
upon  him.  This  reaction,  that  sets  him  right,  is  as 
certain  as  in  the  case  of  the  infant  that  picks  up  a  live 
coal.  It  is  merely  less  direct,  and  not  so  immediate  in 
result,  and  it  works  itself  out  in  a  multiplicity  of  ways. 
One  of  the  methods  of  reaction  that  helps  to  stamp  out 
a  fault  is  the  automatic  repetition  of  the  unpleasant 
consequences  of  wrong  doing.  The  murderer  will  serve 
for  a  general  illustration.  In  the  case  of  a  deliberate, 
premeditated  and  cruel  murder,  the  assassin  is  moved 
by  such  base  motives  as  revenge  or  jealousy.  The  re- 
sults of  these,  so  far  as  their  frightful  consequences  to 
the  victim  are  concerned,  do  not  in  the  least  tend  to 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 


deter  the  assassin  from  further  deeds  of  violence.  He 
feels  gratified  with  his  success  and  is  quite  satisfied  with 
himself.  Only  the  possibility  of  detection  and  punish- 
ment troubles  him.  If  they  follow  in  due  course  they 
will  accomplish  something  in  correcting  his  erroneous 
views  of  life.  But  they  will  not  be  sufficient  to  register 
indelibly,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  man,  a  proper  sense 
of  the  horror  of  which  he  has  been  guilty.  Such  a  man 
can  be  impressed  and  his  viewpoint  changed  only  by 
consequences  to  himself.  It  is  in  the  reaction  in  the 
astral  life  of  the  forces  he  has  generated  here  that  he 
gets  the  lesson  that  forces  in  upon  his  consciousness 
the  horror  inseparable  from  murder.  If  he  escapes  the 
physical  plane  consequences  of  his  deed  he  will  never- 
theless come  into  contact  in  the  astral  world  with  con- 
ditions sufficiently  horrible.  He  has  made  a  tie  with  his 
victim  that  can  not  be  broken  until  the  scales  of  justice 
are  balanced  and  nature's  exaction  has  been  paid  to  the 
uttermost.  Just  what  form  of  retribution  will  follow 
depends,  of  course,  on  the  nature  of  the  case.  But  the 
reaction  is  as  certain  as  it  is  multiplex.  One  of  its 
variants  is  the  gruesome  experience  of  always  fleeing 
from  the  corpse  of  the  victim,  but  with  the  utter  im- 
possibility of  a  moment's  escape.  In  the  case  of  a  mur- 
derer who  has  been  apprehended,  tried,  condemned  and 
executed,  the  whole  of  the  tragedy  and  its  sequel  would 
be,  not  only  lived  over  in  imagination  but  repeated  auto- 
matically, in  fact,  and  worked  out  in  full  detail  in  the 
plastic  matter  of  the  astral  region.  Probably  few  peo- 
ple have  the  imagination  to  comprehend  what  the  mur- 
derer feels  of  apprehension  and  fear  at  his  trial  when 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  79 

his  life  is  in  the  balance;  or  what  he  suffers  while 
hiding  from  justice  and  making  futile  efforts  to  escape 
the  pursuing  officers  of  the  law ;  or  what  his  emotions 
are  as  his  hands  are  tied  and  he  steps  upon  the  death 
trap.  All  this  is  reproduced  in  the  astral  life,  repeatedly. 
As  one  whose  mind  is  completely  filled  with  a  subject — 
let  us  say  something  that  is  the  cause  of  much  anxiety — 
finds  it  impossible  to  turn  his  attention  from  it  and 
think  of  other  things,  or  go  to  sleep,  and  is  impelled 
against  his  desire  to  think  the  matter  over  and  over, 
so  the  assassin  is  enmeshed  in  the  emotion  web  of  his 
crime  and  can  not  escape  from  living  and  acting  it  all 
over  and  over  again  until  a  revulsion  of  feeling  arouses 
him  to  full  comprehension  of  the  horror  of  his  crime. 

Again  it  should  be  said  that  no  attempt  is  here  made 
to  give  more  than  a  very  fragmentary  description,  and  a 
few  hints,  of  the  manner  in  which  the  retributory  laws 
of  nature  work.  A  writer  on  the  subject  should  also  be 
careful  that,  in  pointing  out  the  fact  that  to  certain 
classes  of  offenders  against  nature's  laws  severe  penal- 
ties accrue,  the  reader  does  not  get  the  impression  that 
suffering  is  the  common  lot  in  the  astral  life.  The  truth 
of  the  matter  is  that  people  who  live  clean,  moderate  lives, 
and  refrain  from  generating  -forces  that  are  injurious  to 
others,  will  know  nothing  whatever  of  the  unfortunate 
side  of  astral  existence.  In  the  limitations,  the  vexations, 
the  physical  aches  and  ills,  the  poverty,  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing of  the  material  plane,  most  of  us  are  as  near  to 
hell-conditions  of  existence  as  we  ever  will  be.  The 
ordinary  man  of  average  morality  has  so  little  of  the 
matter  of  the  lowest  level  of  the  astral  plane  lingering  in 


80  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

him  that  as  a  rule  he  would  begin  his  postmortem  ex- 
istence on  the  next  higher  subdivision,  which  is  the 
counterpart  of  the  earth's  surface.  He  would  there- 
fore have  no  knowledge  of  the  hell  that  exists  on  the 
lower  level.  But  that  is  not  at  all  true  of  those  who 
live  grossly  and  freely  indulge  the  emotions  of  anger., 
jealousy,  hatred,  revenge,  and  their  kindred  impulses, 
that  often  lead  to  violent  crimes.  It  is  possible  to  live 
the  physical  life  so  sanely,  usefully,  harmoniously  and 
unselfishly  that  at  the  death  of  the  physical  body  one  will 
pass  almost  immediately  to  a  joyous  and  useful  career 
in  the  astral  world.  But  while  that  is  quite  possible  the 
unfortunate  fact  is  that  a  great  many  people  so  color 
all  their  emotions  with  selfishness  that  the  astral  sojourn 
is  unpleasantly  affected  by  it.  It  is  the  emotions  that 
determine  the  astral  life  and  it  is  said  that  if  they  are 
directly  selfish  they  bring  the  man  into  conditions  on  the 
astral  plane  that  are  very  unpleasant. 

It  must  be  expected  that  any  idea  we  may  form  of 
the  astral  life  will  be  incomplete,  and  inadequate  to  give 
a  true  conception  what  it  is  really  like.  Perhaps  the 
most  comprehensible  of  the  subplanes  is  that  which 
reproduces  the  physical  landscape  in  astral  matter.  There 
the  average  man  will  begin  his  conscious  astral  career. 
If  we  think  of  the  world  as  we  know  it  here  and  then 
imagine  all  that  is  material  to  have  vanished  from  it 
we  shall  gain  some  comprehension  of  the  situation.  Elim- 
inate the  necessity  of  providing  food,  clothing  and 
shelter  and  nearly  all  of  the  labor  of  the  race  would 
cease.  The  tilling  of  the  soil,  the  mining,  the  building, 
the  manufacturing,  and  the  transportation  and  exchange 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 81 

of  the  products  of  field  and  factory,  constitute  nearly 
the  whole  of  human  activity.  In  the  astral  life  no  food 
is  required  and  one  is  clothed  with  astral  matter  from 
which  garments  are  fashioned  almost  with  the  ease  and 
rapidity  of  thought.  No  houses  are  needed  for  shelter. 
The  astral  body  is  not  susceptible  to  degrees  of  heat 
and  cold,  and  nothing  there  corresponds  to  our  tempera- 
tures. There  is  no  division  of,  night  and  day,  objects 
being  self-luminous  and  light  being  perpetual. 

If  we  could  drop  out  of  physical  life  all  need  of 
physical  labor,  abolish  all  response  to  heat  or  cold,  the 
need  of  food  and  houses,  and  add  unlimited  wealth  or, 
to  be  more  exact,  give  each  person  the  power  to  possess 
all  that  wealth  can  confer  and  much  that  it  can  not, 
we  would  have  an  approach  to  a  conception  of  the  astral 
world  from  one  viewpoint.  Each  one  entering  the  astral 
life  has,  of  course,  a  fullness  of  liberty  and  freedom 
from  responsibility  that  is  not  instantly  comprehensible 
to  the  physical  mind.  There  is  nothing  whatever  that 
he  must  do.  There  is,  however,  plenty  that  he  can  do 
if  he  desires  to  be  active.  On  the  physical  plane  many 
people  of  wealth  travel  and  amuse  themselves  with  sight 
seeing.  Thousands  of  others  would  do  so  if  it  were 
possible.  In  the  astral  world  it  is  possible  and  large 
numbers  of  people  drift  aimlessly  about  with  no  particular 
plans.  Multitudes  belonging  to  various  religious  sects 
organize  themselves  into  congregations,  build  edifices 
and  spend  much  time  in  religious  services.  Others  amuse 
themselves  building  houses  and  constructing  landscapes. 
It  is  not  at  all  necessary,  but  the  old  habits  live  and 
influence  activities. 


82  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

The  average  person  in  the  astral  world  gives  himself 
to  idleness  and  the  enjoyment  of  the  intensified  emotions 
of  the  astral  life  just  as  the  majority  of  people  would 
do  here  if  it  were  possible  to  escape  the  round  of  duties 
so  sternly  imposed  by  their  necessities.  For  a  long  time 
the  most  of  them  also  make  daily  visits  to  the  homes 
they  have  left  behind  on  the  physical  plane.  Those  who 
have  a  strong  tie  of  affection  with  some  member  of 
the  family  frequently  spend  much  time  lingering  around 
and  going  on  little  journeys  about  the  premises  or  else- 
where with  the  loved  one.  They  understand  that  the 
dead  person  is  not  perceived  by  the  living  one,  but  never- 
theless they  desire  to  be  near.  They  do  not  have  a  full 
consciousness  of  all  the  living  person  is  thinking  and 
doing,  but  they  are  fully  aware  of  the  state  of  feeling, 
or  emotion,  and  whether  the  living  friend  is  pleasantly 
or  unpleasantly  affected  by  passing  events. 

As  the  astral  life  becomes  more  and  more  familiar 
to  the  newly  arrived  individual  he  gets  well  settled  in 
it  and  gradually  readjusts  his  viewpoint  to  a  truer  per- 
spective than  he  has  here.  As  time  passes  he  is  less  and 
less  in  touch  with  the  affairs  of  the  physical  life  and 
finally  loses  consciouness  of  them  altogether  as  he  passes 
on  to  the  higher  levels  of  the  astral  world. 

But  there  are  many  people  who  have  a  more  serious 
view  of  life  and  who  lose  no  opportunity  of  acquiring 
knowledge,  and  the  astral  world,  which  is  called  "the 
hall  of  learning"  by  students  of  the  occult,  presents 
remarkably  good  conditions  to  them.  Here  we  are  limited 
in  three  dimensions  of  matter  and  hampered  by  the  very 
narrow    range  of  the    physical    senses.      In    the    astral 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  83 

world  matter  has  four  dimensions  and  new  and 
marvelous  avenues  of  learning  open  before  the 
student.  Those  who  are  at  all  interested  in  music,  or 
art  of  any  kind,  find  both  the  field  and  the  facilities 
enormously  extended.  Those  who  study  nature,  whether 
by  directly  probing  into  her  secrets  of  by  cleverly  com- 
bining her  principles  into  new  processes  and  inventions, 
have  such  opportunities  as  scientist  and  discoverer  has 
not  dreamed  of  on  this  plane.  And  so  for  all  the  thought- 
ful and  studious  there  is  a  life  of  the  most  useful  and 
fascinating  kind  in  the  astral  world. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  opportunity  of 
usefulness  and  progress  is  only  for  the  studious.  There 
as  here  the  opportunity  for  useful  work  in  helping  hu- 
manity forward  is  boundless;  for  while  poverty  and 
disease  have  disappeared  absolutely  there  is  much  phil- 
anthropic work  of  other  kinds  to  be  done.  People  are 
to  be  taught,  for  there,  as  here,  the  majority  are  sadly 
in  need  of  knowledge  of  how  to  take  advantage  of  na- 
ture's laws  for  our  rapid  progress,  and  how  to  live  in 
harmony  with  them  in  order  to  get  the  greatest  happi- 
ness from  life.  But  the  work  to  be  done  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  teaching.  The  ignorance  that  makes  the 
teaching  so  necessary  has  brought  a  great  many  people 
into  the  unfortunate  condition,  where  immediate  as- 
sistance is  most  urgently  needed,  and  there  is  such  a 
variety  of  helplessness  that  nobody  need  be  idle. 

Because  of  the  false  teaching  upon  the  subject  of 
life  hereafter,  people  are  bewildered  when  they  become 
conscious  in  the  astral  life.  Many  have  had  their  minds 
so  vividly  impressed  with  the  awful  fate  that  awaits 


84  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

those  who  are  not  "saved"  before  death  that  they  fall 
into  a  state  of  terror  when  at  last  they  realize  that  death 
has  really  occurred.  Others,  who  may  or  may  not  be 
haunted  with  any  such  absurd  misconceptions,  cling  so 
tenaciously  to  the  physical  life  when  about  to  leave  it 
that  there  is  not  complete  separation  between  the  etheric 
double  and  astral  body.  The  result  is  that  the  unfortu- 
nate person  finds  himself  cut  ofT  from  the  physical  world 
and  yet  not  arrived  in  the  astral!  Wrapped  in  a  cloud 
of  etheric  matter  he  drifts  for  a  time  in  terror  of  the 
unknown.  Those  among  the  so-called  dead  who  are 
kindly  enough  to  rescue  the  distressed  may  come  to  their 
relief  and  give  valuable  assistance. 

Perhaps  the  commonest  thing  that  engages  the  atten- 
tion of  the  astral  worker  is  the  fear  that  death  brings  to 
most  people.  They  arrive  in  the  astral  world  with  the  feel- 
ing that  everything  is  unknown  and  uncertain.  All  precon- 
ceived ideas  about  the  life  after  death  have  suddenly 
been  found  unreliable  and  they  are  afraid  of,  they  know 
not  what.  They  want  to  cling  to  anybody  who  knows 
something  of  the  new  world.  When  we  remember  that 
people  are  arriving  in  the  astral  world  by  the  tens  of 
thousands  daily,  even  under  normal  conditions,  it  is 
evident  that  all  who  wish  to  be  of  service  can  find  plenty 
to  do.  No  special  knowledge  of  the  astral  plane  is  nec- 
essary. Common  sense  is  a  sufficient  equipment,  in  such 
simple  work,  for  those  who  desire  to  be  useful  instead 
of  giving  the  entire  time  to  the  pleasures  of  that  world. 
The  work  for  the  astral  helpers  ranges  upward  in  com- 
plexity, of  course,  and  there  is  profitable  activity  for 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  85 

those  with  the  fullest  knowledge  and  skill.  They  usually 
work  in  well  organized  groups  and  render  service  of 
great  practical  value. 

Life  on  the  astral  plane  has  its  end  for  the  same 
reason  that  it  comes  to  a  close  on  the  physical  plane. 
Nature's  purpose  has  been  accomplished  and  the  man  is 
ready  to  go  on  farther  in  his  evolution.  The  length  of 
the  astral  life  varies  just  as  it  does  in  the  physical  world. 
Some  physical  lives  are  very  long  and  sometimes  only 
when  five  scores  of  years,  or  more,  have  passed  does  the 
ego  withdraw.  Other  lives  are  very  short  and  scarce- 
ly well  begun  when  they  unexpectedly  come  to  a  close. 
There  is  nevertheless  a  general  average  to  be  found.  It 
is  at  least  possible  to  make  averages  for  different  classes 
of  people  and  to  say  that  a  majority  of  those  who  are 
of  ordinary  health  and  strength  are  likely  to  attain 
a  stated  age,  while  it  is  certain  that  the  majority 
of  those  who  have  such,  and  such,  a  physical  handicap 
will  lose  their  physical  bodies  when  they  are  much 
younger.  Such  general  rules  may  also  be  applied  to  the 
astral  life. 

Here  a  long  and  alert  life  is  most  desirable  because 
the  purpose  of  the  physical  plane  is  to  gather  experience 
that  shall  be  transmuted  into  wisdom  on  a  higher  plane. 
It  is  a  seed  time  against  a  later  harvest.  But  the  astral 
plane  is,  for  the  vast  majority  of  the  race,  related  to 
the  purgative  process.  In  that  life  the  errors  of  the 
physical  life  are  largely  worked  out  and  desires  that 
have  grown  up  like  weeds  in  a  garden  are  rooted  out  and 
the  budding  virtues  are  given  a  chance  to  grow.  It  is  a 
corrective  plane,  where  blunders  are  checked  up  and  the 


86  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

moral  perspective  is  re-established.  Naturally  enough 
the  sooner  that  can  be  done  the  better.  The  rule  of  a 
long  life  being  most  desirable  on  the  physical  plane  is, 
therefore,  reversed  on  the  astral  plane.  It  is  the  shortest 
life  in  the  astral  world  that  is  the  greatest  prize,  and  it 
comes  to  those  who  have  lived  the  purest  and  noblest 
lives  while  here.  The  sooner  a  man  gets  through  the 
astral  world  and  begins  the  reaping  of  his  harvest  on 
the  mental  plane,  or  heaven  world,  the  better  it  is  for  him. 

The  length  of  the  astral  sojourn  depends  primarily 
upon  the  durability  of  the  astral  body  and  that,  in  turn, 
depends  upon  the  kind  of  a  life  he  has  lived  here.  Let 
us  suppose  that  he  has  lived  a  very  gross  and  sensual 
life.  All  of  the  emotions  of  that  type  that  he  indulged 
built  more  gross  matter  in  his  astral  body  and  also 
strengthend  and  vivified  the  lowest  grade  of  matter  that 
was  already  there.  Let  us  also  imagine  that  he  had  an 
ungovernable  temper  and  frequently  gave  way  to  out- 
bursts of  fury;  further,  that  he  was  cruel  and  revengeful, 
seeking  and  finding  many  opportunities  of  inflicting  in- 
juries upon  others.  Here  we  have  a  case  for  long  life 
on  the  lower  levels  of  the  astral  world. 

Let  us  now  consider  a  different  type  of  man.  He 
lives  peacefully  and  harmoniously  with  those  about  him. 
He  feels  strong  affection  for  wife  and  children.  He  has 
a  host  of  friends  because  of  his  cheerful,  helpful  and 
sympathetic  attitude  toward  others.  He  lives  cleanly 
and  thinks  nobly.  His  mind  is  kept  free  from  trivialities 
and  his  tongue  is  never  employed  in  gossip.  He  makes 
a  determined  and  persistent  effort  to  eliminate  pride, 
envy  and  ambition.     He  cultivates  the  habit  of  thinking 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  87 

first  of  the  welfare  of  others  and  always  last  of  himself — 
in  short,  tries  hard  to  eliminate  selfishness  and  see  all 
things  impersonally.  Such  a  man  could  know  nothing 
whatever  of  the  disagreeable  part  of  the  astral  life  and 
would  pass  quickly  through  even  the  higher  subdivisions 
and  reach  the  ecstatic  happiness  of  the  heaven  world. 

From  the  lower  subdivisions  a  man  rises  very  gradu- 
ally to  the  higher.  He  remains  on  a  given  level  so  long 
as  is  required  to  eliminate  the  matter  of  that  level  from 
his  astral  body.  He  is  then  immediately  conscious  on 
the  next  higher  level.  The  grosser  matter  falls  away  be- 
cause the  man  has  at  last  stopped  sending  his  life  force 
through  it.  Ungratified  desire  has  finally  worn  itself  out 
and  he  is  free.  The  process  can  be  greatly  hastened  or 
retarded  by  the  man's  attitude  toward  life.  If  he  foolish- 
ly dwells  upon  his  desires,  he  gives  new  vitality  and  pro- 
longed life  to  them.  If  he  can  resolutely  turn  his  mind 
to  higher  things  he  hastens  his  release.  His  fate  is  in 
his  own  hands,  and  he  is  fortunate  indeed  if  he  has  a 
knowledge  of  such  matters. 

One  who  dies  in  advanced  years  will  pass  more  rapidly 
through  the  astral  world  than  he  would  have  done  had 
he  died  in  the  full  strength  of  manhood.  As  the  years 
accumulate  the  emotions  that  vivify  the  lowest  grades  of 
astral  matter  are  not  so  much  in  evidence  and  the  matter 
in  which  they  are  expressed  loses  its  vitality.  That  is 
an  additional  reason  why  it  is  desirable  to  live  to  old 
age  in  the  physical  world. 

The  hold  that  the  material  world  has  upon  the  mind 
is  one  of  the  causes  which  greatly  prolong  existence 
in  the  astral  world.     Some  people  give  their  time  and 


88  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

thought  so  exclusively  to  material  things  that  after  they 
lose  the  physical  body  they  cannot  keep  the  mind  away 
from  the  life  that  lies  behind  them.  This  difficulty 
does  not  necessarily  arise  wholly  from  having  given  one's 
energies  entirely  to  personal  ambition  and  material  ac- 
cumulation. Sometimes  the  ruler  of  a  country  is  so 
determined  to  still  manage  affairs,  as  far  as  possible,  that 
this  vivid  interest  in  the  physical  world  stretches  out  the 
period  of  astral  life  most  unfortunately. 

Ordinarily  one's  sojourn  in  the  astral  world  is  com- 
paratively short,  if  we  measure  it  in  the  terms  of  physi- 
cal life.  A  person  who  has  lived  here  seventy  years  may 
have  thirty  or  forty  years  on  the  astral  plane.  But  that 
will  depend  not  only  upon  how  he  lived  the  physical 
life  just  closed  but  also  upon  his  general  position  in 
human  evolution.  A  savage  of  low  type  would  have  a 
comparatively  long  astral  life  while  a  man  at  the  higher 
levels  of  civilization  would  have  a  comparatively  short 
period  there,  while  the  man  in  the  lower  levels  of  civil- 
ized life  might  be  said  to  come  in  at  about  midway 
between  the  two.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  these 
are  very  general  estimates  and  that  among  civilized  peo- 
ples individuals  differ  enormously.  Some  will  pass  very 
slowly  and,  so  far  as  lower  levels  are  concerned,  pain- 
fully, through  astral  life,  while  the  sojourn  of  others 
there  is  measured  in  minutes,  and  they  pass  happily  and 
almost  instantaneously  from  physical  death  to  the  heaven 
world.    But  such  people  are  the  exception,  not  the  rule. 

Communication  with  those  who  have  passed  on  into 
the  astral  world  is  possible,  but  not  always  desirable,  for 
a  number  of  reasons.    As  an  evidence  of  the  continuity 


ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY  89 

of  consciousness  in  the  hands  of  the  scientific  investi- 
gator, such  communications  have  been  of  the  greatest 
value.  As  a  consolation  to  those  who  have  thus  come 
again  in  touch  with  dead  friends  such  messages  have 
been  of  inestimable  value  to  the  bereaved,  particularly 
when  they  have  been  received  in  the  privacy  of  the  family 
circle  by  some  of  its  members.  For  a  time  those  who 
have  lost  the  physical  body  are  usually  within  easy  reach 
through  the  usual  methods  employed  for  the  purpose  and 
perhaps  no  harm  is  done  by  such  communications  unless 
they  arouse  anew  the  grief  of  those  who  have  been  left 
behind  and  thus  greatly  depress  the  departed.  But  after 
the  living  dead  get  farther  along,  and  are  practically  out 
of  touch  with  the  material  world,  then  directing  their 
attention  backward  may  be  positively  injurious  to  them. 
For  that  reason  careful  students  of  the  occult  seldom  seek 
to  obtain  messages,  or  at  least  do  it  with  proper  con- 
sideration for  all  the  circumstances  of  the  particular 
case. 

Due  regard  for  the  interests  of  those  who  have  passed 
on,  as  well  as  for  those  who  remain,  requires  that  all 
the  facts  be  given  full  weight.  The  truth  of  the  matter 
is  that  it  is  our  keen  sense  of  loss  that  gives  rise  to 
the  desire  for  a  message  of  some  sort.  We  long  to  once 
more  get  into  touch  with  one  that  seems  to  be  lost  to 
us.  We  are  not  really  thinking  much  about  his  welfare. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  he  has  not  lost  slight  of  us  and  does 
not  have  our  sense  of  separation.  Not  only  is  he  able  to 
see  us  at  all  times  and  be  conscious  of  our  feelings  and 
emotions,  but  during  the  hours  when  we  are  asleep  he 
is  in  the  fullest  and  freest  communication  with  us  and 


90  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

we  with  him.  On  awakening  we  usually  have  no  memory 
of  this  and  if  we  do  we  think  it  was  a  dream.  But  it 
is  not  so  with  him.  His  memory  of  it  is  perfect  and 
the  result  is  that  he  has  not  our  sense  of  separation  and 
loss  at  all. 

The  result  of  knowledge  upon  the  subject,  that  is 
readily  gained  by  a  study  of  the  researches  of  the  skilled 
occultists,  is  that  one  comes  to  feel  that  one  should 
rest  satisfied  with  the  fact  that  we  do  converse  with  the 
dead  nightly,  and  leave  mediumistic  communications  to 
the  scientific  investigators.  The  natural  order  of  things 
is  that  the  person  who  passes  into  the  astral  world  shall 
in  time  fix  his  mind  exclusively  upon  the  inner  life  and 
be  completely  divorced  from  physical  plane  affairs.  That 
is  the  mental  and  emotional  condition  which  permits 
of  his  rapid  passage  through  levels  where  he  should  not 
linger.  It  is  said  that  to  turn  his  attention  backward  at 
this  time  may  cause  him  acute  distress. 

A  reading  of  the  Christian  scriptures  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  occultism  often  throws  a  new  light  upon  the 
subject.  An  instance  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  story 
of  the  woman  of  Endor  who  is  visited  by  Saul  in  his 
quest  for  psychic  information  about  the  crisis  that  has 
been  reached  in  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom.  The  woman 
went  into  trance  and  acted  as  a  medium  for  a  communi- 
cation from  Samuel,  who  tells  Saul  just  what  will  occur 
in  the  impending  battle.  Samuel's  first  words  were 
a  reproach  to  Saul.  "Why  hast  thou  disquieted  me  to 
bring  me  up  ?"  *  was  his  greeting.    It  is  the  language  of 

*1  Samuel  XXVIII— 15. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  91 

one  who  is  displeased.  Drawing  his  attention  forcibly 
back  to  the  material  world  by  the  strong  desire  Saul 
had  to  communciate  with  him  was  evidently  distressing 
to  the  dead  king,  hence  the  rebuke,  "Why  hast  thou 
disquieted  me  ?" 

What  is  here  said  on  the  subject  of  communcation, 
however,  has  reference  to  general  principles  only.  There 
is  no  intention  of  suggesting  that  it  is  always  undesirable 
to  communicate  with  those  who  have  passed  over.  Often 
those  on  the  other  side  seek  means  of  communicating  and 
they  should  then  find  the  most  willing  co-operation  from 
this  side.  Sometimes  one  who  has  left  the  physical 
plane  life  has  a  message  of  great  importance  to  deliver 
and  such  a  case  reverses  the  general  rule — he  would  be 
delayed  if  he  could  not  communicate.  It  would  be  de- 
cidedly to  his  advantage  to  free  his  mind  of  the  matter. 
Until  he  has  done  so  he  may  remain  in  a  restless  con- 
dition and  his  case  falls  into  the  category  of  what  the 
spiritualists  call  "earth  bound."  He  may  have  left 
undone  something  that  a  message  will  set  right,  if  he 
can  get  it  through,  or  he  may  have  secreted  something 
that  cannot  be  found  because  he  died  suddenly  and  had 
no  opportunity  to  speak  of  it.  Or  it  may  simply  be  a 
case  of  desiring  to  prove  to  materialistic  friends  the 
fact  that  the  so-called  dead  are  not  dead,  and  are  close 
at  hand.  It  is  sometimes  possible  for  the  important 
information  to  come  through  into  physical  life  in  the 
form  of  a  dream  by  the  living,  and  thus  the  recovery  of 
valuables  has  followed.*     In  such  a  case  the  dream  is 


*Ch.  3,  Dreams  and  Premonitions. — L.  W.  Rogers. 


92  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

a  memory  of  facts  well  known  in  astral  life  but  hidden 
from  the  waking  consciousness  by  the  unresponsive  ma- 
terial brain. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  one  who  thus  most  ear- 
nestly desires  to  communciate  but  is  wholly  ignorant 
of  how  to  accomplish  his  purpose  causes  a  good  deal  of 
annoyance.  His  blundering  attempts  to  use  psychic 
force  may  be  wholly  abortive  and  result  only  in  mean- 
ingless noises,  raps,  the  tumbling  of  books  or  dishes 
from  shelves  or  the  aimless  movement  of  furniture. 
Annoyance  is  sometimes  caused  also  by  intention,  on  the 
part  of  those  who  think  it  is  humorous  to  play  pranks. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  passing  on  to  the  astral  life 
does  not  improve  one's  common  sense.  If  while  living 
here,  he  thought  it  amusing  to  astonish  or  delude  some- 
body, or  trick  a  friend  into  seriously  accepting  some 
absurd  assertion  as  a  fact,  he  still  regards  the  same 
course  as  entertaining.  This  accounts  for  many  of  the 
foolish,  and  sometimes  startling  messages,  or  answers  to 
questions,  received  at  seances. 

It  has  often  been  asked  why,  if  communication  be- 
tween the  physical  and  astral  planes  is  possible,  we  do 
not  receive  information  that  might  lead  to  valuable  dis- 
coveries and  inventions.  The  very  fact  that  death  does 
not  confer  wisdom  explains  it  in  part.  But  an  even  more 
important  fact  is  that  communication  is  easy  with  the 
lower  levels  and  correspondingly  difficult  as  the  higher 
levels  are  reached.  All  who  have  had  much  experience 
with  seances  are  familiar  with  the  fact  that  "guides" 
or  "controls,"  that  is,  the  persons  in  the  invisible  realms 
who   direct  the   seance   and    frequently   speak   through 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 93 

the  medium,  are  very  often  Indians  or  others  at  a  low 
level  of  evolution.  The  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  astral  levels  with  which  communication  is  easy  are 
not  the  type  capable  of  furnishing  ideas  of  any  great 
value.  It  is  on  the  higher  levels  that  the  man  of  in- 
tellectual power  passes  most  of  his  astral  life.  The 
scientist  or  the  inventor  who  has  given  so  much  thought 
to  his  work  that  he  has  been  in  some  degree  successful 
here  is  not  likely  to  have  much  consciousness  on  lower 
levels.  It  is  the  highest  of  the  seven  subdivisions  of  the 
astral  world  that  is  the  habitat  of  the  person  who  has 
followed  intellectual  pursuits,  during  physical  life,  and 
with  that  level  it  is  practically  impossible  for  the  ordinary 
medium  to  communicate. 

One  of  the  objections  to  indiscriminate  communica- 
tion with  the  astral  plane  lies  in  the  very  fact  that  the 
lowest  class  of  entities  are  most  accessible.  That  not 
only  accounts  for  the  commonplace  messages  in  such 
abundance,  but  it  is  frequently  a  source  of  actual  danger, 
especially  where  people  form  "circles"  for  the  purpose 
of  rendering  themselves  more  sensitive  to  psychic  in- 
flunces.  In  such  cases  it  is  common  to  accept  every 
message  as  absolute  truth.  There  is  no  doubt  that  as 
a  rule  the  astral  people  in  charge  of  such  a  gathering 
are  earnest  and  honest.  But  they  are  neither  all-wise 
nor  all-powerful,  and  it  sometimes  comes  about  that 
some  of  the  sitters  are  partially  or  wholly  obsessed  by 
astral  entities,  and  that  may  prove  to  be  an  exceedingly 
serious  matter.  Some  people  have  thus  lost  their  sanity 
and  others  their  lives. 

It  is,  of  course,  only  the  gross  type  of  astral  person 


94  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

who  has  a  desire  to  seize  upon  the  physical  body  of 
another.  The  purpose  is  to  gratify  desires  that  have 
outlived  the  physical  body.  The  dead  drunkard  is  per- 
haps the  commonest  example  of  the  obsessing-  entity,  and 
if  the  obsession  is  only  partial  it  may  lead  to  nothing 
worse  than  strong  and  perhaps  irresistible  impulses 
toward  alcoholic  stimulation.  Obsession  may,  of  course, 
occur  without  the  psychic  door  being  opened  deliberately. 
But  no  obsession  is  possible,  in  any  case,  unless  there  is 
something  within  the  victim  responsive  to  the  moral 
defect  of  the  obsessing  entity. 

Partial  obsessions  are  rather  common  and  there  are 
frequent  inquiries  as  to  the  best  means  of  treating  such 
a  case.  It  may  amount  only  to  the  slight  annoyance 
of  astral  people  hanging  about  and  refusing  to  depart 
or  to  actual  persecution.  In  all  such  cases  the  victim  is, 
of  course,  in  conscious  touch  and  communication  with 
the  intruders.  One  of  the  world's  greatest  authorities 
on  the  subject,  who  is  a  constant  investigator  of  the  un- 
seen regions,  has  given  detailed  answer  to  two  ques- 
tioners, and  what  he  says  is  of  such  practical  value  that 
it  is  well  worth  reproducing.  The  second  question  itself 
is  enlightening  as  to  the  character  of  the  obsessing 
entities.     The  first  inquirer  asks: 

"What  is  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  an  excar- 
nate  human  being  who  persist  in  occupying  one's 
body?" 

The  reply  follows : 

"I  should  simply  and  absolutely  decline  to  be  so 
obsessed.  The  best  and  kindest  plan  would  be  to 
have  an  explanation  with  the  dead  person,  to  enquire 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  95 


what  he  wants  and  why  he  makes  such  persistent 
attempts.  Quite  probably,  he  may  be  some  ignorant 
soul  who  does  not  at  all  comprehend  his  new  sur- 
roundings, and  is  striving  madly  to  get  into  touch 
again  with  the  only  kind  of  life  that  he  understands. 
In  that  case  if  matters  are  explained  to  him,  he  may 
be  brought  to  a  happier  frame  of  mind  and  induced 
to  cease  his  ill-directed  efforts.  Or  the  poor  creature 
may  have  something  on  his  mind — some  duty  un- 
fulfilled or  some  wrong  unrighted;  if  this  be  so,  and 
the  matter  can  be  arranged  to  his  satisfaction,  he 
may  then  be  at  peace. 

"If,  however,  he  proves  not  to  be  amenable  to 
reason,  if  in  spite  of  all  argument  and  explanation 
he  refuses  to  abandon  his  reprehensible  line  of 
action,  it  will  be  necessary  gently  but  firmly  to 
resist  him.  Every  man  has  an  inalienable  right  to  the 
use  of  his  own  vehicles,  and  encroachments  of  this 
nature  should  not  be  permitted.  If  the  lawful  pos- 
sessor of  the  body  will  confidenty  assert  himself  and 
use  •  his  own  willpower  no  obsession  can  take 
place. 

"When  such  things  occur,  it  is  almost  always  be- 
cause the  victim  has  in  the  first  place  voluntarily 
yielded  himself  to  the  invading  influence,  and  his 
first  step  therefore  is  to  reverse  that  act  of  submis- 
sion, to  determine  strongly  to  take  matters  into  his 
own  hands  again  and  to  resume  control  over  his 
property.  It  is  this  reassertion  of  himself  that  is 
the  fundamental  requirement,  and  though  much  help 
may  be  given  by  wise  friends,  nothing  which  they 
can  do  will  take  the  place  of  the  development  of 
willpower  on  the  part  of  the  victim,  or  obviate  the 
necessity  for  it.  The  exact  method  of  procedure 
will  naturally  vary  according  to  the  details  of  the 
case." 

The  same  authority  answers  another  question  on  the 


\ 


96  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

same   subject   and  he   is   here   dealing   with   particular 
entities  that  he  has  evidently  seen : 

"I  have  long  been  troubled  by  entities  who  con- 
stantly suggest  evil  ideas  and  make  use  of  coarse 
and  violent  language.  They  are  always  urging  me 
to  take  strong  drink,  and  goading  me  on  to  the  con- 
sumption of  large  quantities  of  meat.  I  have  prayed 
earnestly,  but  with  little  avail,  and  am  driven  to  my 
wits'  end.     What  can  I  do? 

To  this  appeal  the  psychic  scientist  replies : 

"You  have  indeed  suffered  greatly;  but  now  you 
must  make  up  your  mind  to  suffer  no  more.  You 
must  take  courage  and  make  a  firm  stand.  The 
power  of  these  dead  people  over  you  is  only  in  your 
fear  of  them.  Your  own  will  is  stronger  than  all 
theirs  combined  if  you  will  only  know  that  it  is; 
if  you  turn  upon  them  with  vigor  and  determination 
they  must  yield  before  you.  You  have  an  inalienable 
right  to  the  undisturbed  use  of  your  own  vehicles, 
and  you  should  insist  on  being  left  in  peace.  You 
would  not  tolerate  an  intrusion  of  filthy  and  disgust- 
ing beings  into  your  house  on  the  physical  plane; 
why  should  you  submit  to  it  because  the  entities 
happen  to  be  astral?  If  an  insolent  tramp  forces 
himself  into  a  man's  house,  the  owner  does  not  kneel 
down  and  pray — he  kicks  the  tramp  out;  and  that 
is  precisely  what  you  must  do  with  these  astral 
tramps. 

"You  will  no  doubt  say  to  yourself  that  when  I 
give  you  this  advice  I  do  not  know  the  terrible  power 
of  the  particular  demons  who  are  afflicting  you. 
That  is  exactly  what  they  would  like  you  to  be- 
lieve— what  they  will  try  to  make  you  believe;  but 
do  not  be  so  foolish  as  to  listen  to  them.  I  know 
the  type  perfectly,  and  mean,  despicable,  bullying 
villains  they  are;  they  will  torment  a  weak  woman 
for  months  together,  but  will  fly  in  cowardly  terror 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  97 


the  moment  you  turn  upon  them  in  righteous  anger! 
I  should  just  laugh  at  them,  but  I  would  drive  them 
out,  hold  not  a  moment's  parley  with  them.  Of 
course,  they  will  bluster  and  show  fight,  because  you 
have  let  them  have  their  own  way  for  so  long  that 
they  will  not  tamely  submit  to  expulsion;  but  face 
them  with  iron  determination,  set  your  will  against 
them  like  an  immovable  rock,  and  down  they  will 
go.  Say  to  them:  'I  am  a  spark  of  the  divine  fire, 
and  by  the  power  of  the  God  within  me  I  order  you 
to  depart!'  Never  let  yourself  think  for  an  instant  of 
failure  or  of  yielding;  God  is  within  you,  and  God 
cannot  fail."* 

Probably  there  is  no  astral  subject  of  more  vital 
importance  to  any  of  us  than  that  of  the  right  attitude 
of  mind  and  emotion  toward  the  living  dead.  It  is 
commonly  said  that  we  can  do  nothing  more  for  them 
when  they  have  passed  away  from  physical  plane  life, 
but  a  greater  error  could  not  easily  be  made.  The 
connection  with  us  is  by  no  means  severed.  Not  only  are 
they  emotionally  in  touch  with  us  but  their  emotions  are 
very  much  keener  than  when  they  had  a  physical  body 
through  which  to  express  them.  They  are  now  living 
in  the  astral  body,  the  matter  of  which  is  enormously 
more  responsive  to  emotional  vibrations.  A  joyous  emo- 
tion here  would  be  tremendously  more  joyous  there  and 
a  thing  that  would  produce  depression  here  would  be  a 
hundred  times  more  depressing  there.  That  fact  should 
give  pause  to  those  who  are  inclined  to  think  in  sorrow, 
and  with  something  of  despair,  about  their  friends  who 
have  passed  on.  They  are  not  far  away  in  space  and 
our  emotions  affect  them  profoundly  and  instantly. 

The  Inner  Life. — Leadbeater,  Vol.  I,  p.  483. 


98  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  fact  that  moods  are 
communicable.  The  person  who  is  cheerful  cheers  up 
others  in  his  vicinity,  while  the  one  who  is  gloomy  spreads 
gloom  wherever  he  goes.  It  is  a  simple  matter  of  vibra- 
tions. It  is  often  within  the  power  of  a  member  of  the 
family  who  habitually  has  "the  blues"  to  destroy  the 
happiness  of  the  entire  household.  If  we  think  of  the 
most  depressing  effect  that  can  be  caused  by  sorrow  on 
the  physical  plane,  and  then  multiply  its  effectiveness 
by  a  hundred,  we  shall  have  no  exaggeration  of  the  astral 
effects  of  the  emotions  we  indulge  in  the  physical  body. 
If,  then,  the  sorrow  of  a  weeping  relative  distresses  us 
here  it  is  clear  that  it  must  bring  really  keen  distress 
to  the  one  who  is  the  subject  of  such  grief.  His  life 
may  thus  be  made  miserable  by  the  very  persons  who 
would  be  the  last  to  cause  him  sorrow  if  they  understood 
what  they  were  doing. 

We  can  really  help  the  so-called  dead  and  make  them 
very  much  happier  by  simply  changing  our  mournful 
attitude  toward  them.  All  violent  expressions  of  grief 
should  be  avoided  and  a  determination  to  make  the  best 
of  the  matter  should  be  cultivated.  The  situation  may 
indeed  be  bad,  but  we  make  it  very  much  worse  by  our 
mourning.  The  funeral  customs  of  Occidental  civiliza- 
tion are  quite  consistent  with  its  materialism.  We  act 
as  nearly  as  possible  as  though  we  believe  the  dead  are 
lost  to  us  absolutely.  We  make  matters  as  gloomy  as 
possible.  Yet  we  are  slowly  improving.  Not  so  very 
long  ago  when  anybody  died  those  present  stopped  the 
ticking  of  the  clock,  drew  down  the  window  curtains, 
moved  about  on  tiptoe,  and  acted  generally  in  a  way 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  99 

calculated  to  add  as  much  as  possible  to  the  awe  and  the 
gloom.  We  still  wear  somber  and  depressing  black 
and  add  all  we  can  externally  to  our  inward  distress. 

A  more  sensible  attitude  of  mind  may  be  observed  at 
any  theosophical  funeral  and,  with  growing  frequency, 
at  the  funerals  among  thinking  people.  A  funeral  should 
not  be  the  occasion  of  a  final  expression  of  grief,  but  a 
gathering  of  friends  who  send  kindly  thoughts  and 
helpful  good  wishes  to  the  comrade  whose  life  work  in 
the  physical  world  is  finished.  The  general  feeling  should 
be  very  much  like  that  of  a  party  of  friends  who  go 
to  the  pier  to  see  a  well  loved  traveler  off  on  a  long 
journey  to  remote  parts  of  the  earth  for  a  sojourn  of 
many  years  or  possibly  a  lifetime.  There  should  be 
constant  thought  of  his  welfare,  not  of  the  loss  to  his 
friends.  Grief  that  thinks  of  itself  is  an  expression  of 
selfishness  and  is  detrimental  to  all.  One  should  practice 
self  control  in  such  a  matter  just  as  one  would  control  a 
feeling  of  anger  under  different  circumstances. 

Naturally  enough  the  control  of  grief  when  one  we 
love  has  passed  on  is  none  to  easy.  But  any  degree 
of  success  is  much  better  than  no  effort,  and  will  cer- 
tainly help  the  one  for  whom  we  mourn.  Much  can 
be  accomplished  by  avoiding  unnecessary  incidents  that 
bring  vivi'dly  back  the  keen  sense  of  loss.  Many  people 
indulge  the  foolish  custom  of  regularly  visiting  the 
cemetery  where  the  body  has  been  interred.  A  little 
analysis  will  show  that  this  is  only  another  evidence  of 
our  materialistic  modes  of  thought,  and  the  custom 
serves  to  perpetuate  emotions  that  should  never  have 
existed.    We  can  not,  of  course,  think  too  often  nor  too 


100  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

tenderly  of  those  who  have  passed  on,  but  we  should 
do  nothing  that  leads  us  to  think  of  them  as  being  dead, 
or  being  far  away.  The  fact  that  they  are  alive  and 
well  and  happy  and  near  should  constantly  fill  the  mind ; 
and  all  of  that,  in  nearly  all  cases,  will  be  perfectly  true 
if  we  do  not  foolishly  destroy  their  peace  of  mind  with 
our  selfish  sorrow. 

Occasionally  a  hint  on  the  subject  comes  from  the 
astral  plane  people  themselves.  In  the  recent  book* 
by  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  on  his  experiments  in  psychic  re- 
search, there  is  a  message  from  his  son,  who  was  killed 
in  battle,  agreeing  to  attend  the  family  Christmas  dinner 
and  to  occupy  the  chair  placed  for  him,  provided  they 
will  all  refrain  from  gloomy  thoughts  about  him!  No 
one  who  is  informed  on  the  subject  of  emotional  re- 
action on  the  astral  body,  after  the  loss  of  the  physical 
body,  could  be  surprised  by  the  conditions  named  by 
the  young  man. 

The  advocates  of  cremation  have  a  strong  argument 
in  the  fact  that  the  preservation  of  the  body  for  a  time, 
whether  in  a  tomb  or  a  grave,  tends  to  keep  grief  alive. 
When  the  body  is  reduced  to  ashes  the  delusion  that  the 
body  is  somehow  the  man  seems  to  have  less  of  a 
material  basis.  Visits  to  a  tomb  or  grave  are  unfortunate, 
not  alone  because  they  renew  grief  through  thinking 
upon  it  and  thus  cause  great  distress  to  those  for  whom 
we  mourn,  but  also  because  the  environment  of  a  ceme- 
tery is  one  of  the  worst  possible  for  the  sorrowing.  It 
is   a   dismal   park   of   concentrated   griefs    where   each 

*Raymond:     or  Life  and   Death. — Lodge. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  101 

mourner  accentuates  the  emotional  distress  of  all  others. 
There  is  but  one  sensible  attitude  to  take  toward  those 
we  have  lost  by  death — to  think  of  them  as  living  a 
joyous,  busy  life  and  at  least  calling  on  us  daily  even 
though  most  of  us  are  not  sensitive  enough  to  be  con- 
scious of  the  fact.  We  should  try  to  realize  the  truth 
of  the  matter  and  then  readjust  our  habits  to  fit  the 
facts.  The  average  person  who  is  afflicted  with  the 
erroneous  ideas  still  so  common,  is  doing  an  enormous 
amount  of  injury  and  bringing  into  the  lives  of  the  very 
people  he  loves  a  depression  of  which  he  little  dreams, 
and  which  he  can  change  to  vivid  pleasure  by  always 
thinking  cheerfully  of  them  and  sending  them  daily 
thoughts  of  serenity  and  peace. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

REBIRTH:  ITS  REASONABLENESS 

Life  is  the  most  elusive  thing  with  which  science 
has  to  deal  but  we  have  learned  much  about  both 
life  and  matter  in  recent  years,  and  it  is  a  noteworthy 
fact  that  the  more  we  learn  the  thinner  become  the 
ranks  of  the  materialists.  The  only  scientist  of  note 
who  still  declares  his  philosophy  of  materialism  is 
Haeckel,  and  of  him  a  brother  scientist  has  written, 
"He  is,  as  it  were,  a  surviving  voice  from  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century ;"  and,  referring  to  Haeckel's 
almost  deserted  ground  in  the  scientific  world,  he 
declares  that  his  voice  "is  as  the  voice  of  one  crying 
in  the  wilderness,  not  as  the  pioneer  or  vanguard  of 
an  advancing  army,  but  as  the  despairing  shout  of  a 
standard-bearer,  still  bold  and  unflinching,  but 
abandoned  by  the  retreating  ranks  of  his  comrades  as 
they  march  to  new  orders  in  a  fresh  and  more  ideal- 
istic direction." 

Thus  is  the  old  ground  of  scientific  materialism 
being  deserted  by  all  progressive  scientists.  While 
we  do  not  yet  know  a  great  deal  about  life  science 
has  gone  far  enough  to  permit  a  grasp  of  facts  and 
principles   from   which   conclusions   may   be   logically 

103 


104  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

drawn  and  working  hypotheses  constructed.  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  who  is  president  of  one  of  the  great 
English  Universities,  and  ranks  as  one  of  the  world's 
most  eminent  scientists,  speaking  of  his  conception 
of  life,  says  that  "It  is  dependent  on  matter  for  its 
phenomenal  appearance — for  its  manifestation  to  us 
here  and  now,  and  for  all  its  terrestrial  activities; 
but  otherwise  I  conceive  that  it  is  independent,  that 
its  essential  existence  is  continuous  and  permanent, 
though  its  interactions  with  matter  are  discontinuous 
and  temporary;  and  I  conjecture  that  it  is  subject  to 
a  law  of  evolution — that  a  linear  advance  is  open  to  it 
— whether  it  be  in  its  phenomenal  or  in  its  occult 
state/'* 

Later  in  the  same  work  he  expresses  the  opinion 
"that  life  is  something  outside  the  scheme  of 
mechanics — outside  the  categories  of  matter  and  en- 
ergy; though  it  can  nevertheless  control  and  direct 
material  forces.     ..." 

In  closing  his  volume  on  Life  and  Matter  this  dis- 
tinguished scientist  says: 

"What  is  certain  is  that  life  possesses  the  power 
of  vitalizing  the  complex  material  aggregates  which 
exist  on  this  planet,  and  of  utilizing  their  energies 
for  a  time  to  display  itself  amid  terrestrial  surround- 
ings; and  then  it  seems  to  disappear  or  evaporate 
whence  it  came.  It  is  perpetually  arriving  and  per- 
petually disappearing.  While  it  is  here,  if  it  is  at 
a  sufficiently  high  level,  the  animated  material  body 
moves   about  and   strives  after  many  objects,   some 

♦"Life  and  Matter,"  Lodge,  p.  119,  120. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  105 

worthy,  some  unworthy;  it  acquires  thereby  a  certain 
individuality,  a  certain  character.  It  may  realize 
itself,  moreover,  becoming  conscious  of  its  own 
mental  and  spiritual  existence;  and  it  then  begins 
to  explore  the  Mind  which,  like  its  own,  it  con- 
ceives must  underlie  the  material  fabric — half  dis- 
played, half  concealed,  by  the  environment,  and  in- 
telligible only  to  a  kindred  spirit.  Thus  the  scheme 
of  law  and  order  dimly  dawns  on  the  nascent  soul, 
and  it  begins  to  form  clear  conceptions  of  truth, 
goodness,  and  beauty;  it  may  achieve  something  of 
permanent  value,  or  a  work  of  art  or  of  literature; 
it  may  enter  the  region  of  emotion  and  may  evolve 
ideas  of  the  loftiest  kind;  it  may  degrade  itself  below 
the  beasts,  or  it  may  soar  till  it  is  almost  divine. 

"Is  it  the  material  molecular  aggregate  that  has 
of  its  own  unaided  latent  power  generated  this  indi- 
viduality, acquired  this  character,  felt  these  emotions, 
evolved  these  ideas?  There  are  some  who  try  to  think 
that  it  is.  There  are  others  who  recognize  in  this  ex- 
traordinary development  a  contact  between  this  ma- 
terial frame  of  things  and  a  universe  higher  and 
other  than  anything  known  to  our  senses;  a  universe 
not  dominated  by  physics  and  chemistry;  but  utiliz- 
ing the  interactions  of  matter  for  its  own  purpose; 
a  universe  where  the  human  spirit  is  more  at  home 
than  it  is  among  these  temporary  collocations  of 
atoms;  a  universe  capable  of  infinite  development, 
of  noble  contemplation  and  of  lofty  joy,  long  after 
this  planet — nay,  the  whole  solar  system — shall  have 
fulfilled  its  present  sphere  of  destiny,  and  retired 
cold  and  lifeless  upon  its  endless  way." 

Such  a  conception  of  life  carries  us  very  far  from 
the  old  popular  view  of  the  origin  of  the  race,  but 
it  is  a  conception  that  brings  science  and  religion  into 
perect  agreement  and  will  enable  us  to  understand 
human  evolution  and  explain  facts  in  life  that  would 
otherwise  remain  incomprehensible. 


106  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

The  pre-existence  of  the  soul,  as  a  part  of  uni- 
versal life,  was  taught  and  commonly  accepted  in  the 
early  Christian  period.  If  we  accept  the  fact  of  evolu- 
tion at  all,  and  are  not  materialists,  there  is  no  escape 
from  the  belief  of  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul.  In- 
deed, not  even  materialism  can  save  one  from  the  nec- 
essity of  accepting  the  pre-existence  of  the  individual- 
ized consciousness  that  we  call  a  human  being. 

Let  us  consider  the  human  infant  as  we  see  it  at 
birth.  Whence  came  it — how  can  we  account  for  it 
in  a  universe  of  law  and  order?  We  can  understand 
it  from  the  physical  side.  Its  tiny  body  is  a  concourse 
of  physical  atoms  with  a  prenatal  history  of  a  few 
months.  But  its  mind,  its  consciousness,  its  emo- 
tions, what  of  them?  The  average  man  replies  that 
God  made  them  and  they  constitute  the  soul.  But 
how  and  when  were  they  "made"  ?  Even  the  material 
part  of  this  infant  did  not  spring  miraculously  and 
instantaneously  into  existence.  How  much  less  pos- 
sible is  it  that  the  soul  did  so!  If  we  say  "God  made 
it"  we  have  explained  nothing.  But  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  deny  that  God  creates  the  soul  in  order  for 
us  to  move  toward  an  understanding  of  how  the  soul 
came  to  be.  It  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  the 
process  of  its  creation  was  evolutionary.  Nobody 
denies  that  the  earth  was  created  by  evolution,  al- 
though men  may  differ  in  opinion  on  the  matter  of  a 
divine  intelligence  guiding  its  evolutionary  develop- 
ment. The  same  principle  must  apply  to  the  human 
intelligence. 

Lodge  wrote  Life  and  Matter  as  a  reply  to  Haeck- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  107 

el's  Riddle  of  the  Universe,  which  presented  the  lat- 
ter's  philosophy  of  materialism.  But  Lodge  did  more  than 
demolish  Haeckel's  premises  and  leave  him  with  not 
an  inch  of  scientific  ground  to  support  his  theory. 
The  English  scientist  raised  questions  that  have  not 
been  answered,  and  cannot  be  answered,  by  the  scien- 
tific materialist.  He  points  out  that  the  materialist's 
philosophy  has  no  explanation  for  "the  extraordinary 
rapidity  of  development,  which  results  in  the  produc- 
tion of  a  fully  endowed  individual  in  the  course  of 
some  fraction  of  a  century."* 

With  those  two  dozen  words  Lodge  leaves  the 
scientific  materialist  speechless ;  for  all  scientists  are 
evolutionists,  and  it  is  impossible  to  account  for 
"the  extraordinary  rapidity  of  development"  by  the  laws 
of  evolution.  It  is  well  known  that  the  evolutionary 
age  of  anything  depends  upon  its  complexity.  A 
simple  form  is  comparatively  young  while  a  complex 
one  has  a  long  evolutionary  history  behind  it.  The 
earth  is  simple  compared  to  a  human  being.  If,  then, 
it  has  required  ages  to  evolve  the  earth  to  its  present 
stage  how  long  did  it  take  to  evolve  the  wonderfully 
complex  mental  and  emotional  nature  of  the  human 
being  that  inhabits  the  earth?  And  thus  Lodge 
bottles  Haeckel  up  on  his  own  premises  and  shows 
that  the  very  evolutionary  principles  to  which  the 
German  scientist  appeals  demolish  his  theory!  He 
practically  says  to  Haeckel,  "Your  philosophy,  sir, 
fails  to  show  how  it  is  possible  for  the  vacuous  mind 

*Life  and  Matter. — Lodge,  p.  121. 


108  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

of  the  infant  to  evolve  into  the  genius  of  the  philos- 
opher in  thirty  or  forty  years."  In  other  words,  if 
the  infant  is  nothing  but  the  form  we  see  it  would 
be  utter  absurdity  to  say  that  that  mass  of  matter  can 
evolve  a  high  grade  of  intelligence  within  a  few  years 
when  it  takes  centuries  to  make  a  slight  evolutionary 
gain. 

Look  at  an  infant  the  day  it  is  born.  Study  its 
face.  One  might  as  well  search  the  surface  of  a 
squash  for  some  indication  of  intelligence.  But  wait 
only  a  little  while  and  you  shall  have  evidence  not 
merely  of  intelligence  but  of  emotions  possible  only  to 
the  highest  order  of  life.  Clearly,  here  is  not  some- 
thing evolved  within  a  brief  period  from  a  mass  of 
material  atoms.  Such  a  theory  would  be  as  unscien- 
tific as  the  popular  belief  in  miraculous  creation  at 
which  the  scientific  materialist  scoffs.  The  swift 
change  from  the  vacuity  of  the  infant  mind  to  the 
intellectual  power  of  the  adult  in  the  "fraction  of  a 
century"  is  not  the  creation  of  something  but 
its  manifestation — the  coming  through  into  visible  ex- 
pression of  that  which  already  exists.  The  soul,  the 
consciousness,  the  real  man,  consisting  of  the  whole 
of  the  mental  and  emotional  nature,  which  has  been 
built  up  through  thousands  of  years  of  evolution,  is 
coming  once  more  to  rebirth,  to  visible  expression  in 
a  material  body. 

The  body  is,  of  course,  but  the  new  physical  in- 
strument of  the  old  soul — an  instrument,  as  certainly 
as  the  violin  is  the  instrument  and  a  vehicle  for  the 
musician's  expression.     At  every  turn   our  material- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  109 

istic  conceptions  mislead  us  and  prevent  the  percep- 
tion of  nature's  truth.  It  is  because  we  think  of  the 
body  as  being  actually  the  person,  that  it  seems  im- 
probable that  an  old  soul  has  entered  the  infant  body. 
We  think  of  the  power  and  intelligence  of  an  old  soul 
and  then  look  at  the  baby  and  find  no  indication  of 
such  things.  But  that  is  only  because  the  baby  body 
is  such  a  new  and  and  undeveloped  instrument  that 
it  is  at  first  useless  and  only  slowly  can  it  be  brought 
under  control  of  the  soul  and  made  to  express  its  in- 
telligence and  power.  The  body  is  a  growing  instru- 
ment, not  a  completed  one. 

Let  us  suppose  that  musical  instruments  grow  as 
physical  bodies  do.  Suppose  there  was  a  time  when 
the  piano  was  keyless,  as  a  baby  is  toothless.  Sup- 
pose that  sounding  boards  have  a  period  of  imma- 
turity and  that  the  whole  mechanism  of  the  instru- 
ment is  in  a  state  that  can  only  be  characterized 
as  infantile.  If  a  master  musician  attempts  to  play 
on  such  a  piano  his  performance  would  by  no  means 
be  an  indication  of  his  ability.  A  competent  critic 
who  could  hear  the  performance  but  not  see  the 
musician  would  promptly  declare  that  no  really  great 
musician  was  touching  the  keys.  And  that  is  pre- 
cisely the  mistake  we  make  in  assuming  that  the  im- 
mature body  of  an  infant  is  capable  of  expressing 
the  intellectual  power  of  the  old  soul,  or,  to  put  it 
differently,  denying  that  a  returned,  old  soul  is  in 
possession  of  the  infant  body  simply  because  there 
is  no  physical  plane  evidence  of  the  fact.  If  pianos 
slowly  grew  to  maturity  then  only  when  the  instru- 


110  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

ment  was  mature  could  the  master  musician  give  a 
practical  demonstration  of  his  skill ;  and  only  when 
the  physical  body  has  reached  its  maturity  can  the 
soul  that  is  using  it  fully  express  itself. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  physical  body  the  soul 
is  only  very  partially  expressed  through  it.  The 
entrance  of  the  consciousness  into  the  physical  world 
is  slow  and  gradual.  It  is  somewhat  like  the  growth 
of  a  plant,  very  gradual,  but  the  analogy  is  not  a 
good  one,  for  a  plant  is  very  little  like  a  human  body. 
It  is  impossible  to  find  a  material  equivalent  of  the 
dawning  of  consciousness  on  the  physical  plane.  Be- 
ginning about  four  and  a  half  months  before  the 
birth  of  the  physical  body  and  continuing  for  a  period 
of  several  years  the  soul,  or  consciousness,  is  engaged 
in  the  process  of  anchorage  in  the  physical  world. 
For  a  long  time  the  center  of  consciousness  remains 
above  the  material  plane  and  during  the  early  years 
of  childhood  the  consciousness  is  divided  between 
the  astral  and  physical  worlds,  with  the  result  that 
the  child  is  often  somewhat  confused  and  brings  frag- 
ments of  astral  consciousness  into  physical  life.  When 
the  physical  body  is  about  seven  years  old  the  con- 
sciousness may  be  said  to  be  centered  on  the  physical 
plane,  but  only  when  the  body  and  brain  of  the  soul's 
new  instrument  are  mature  has  the  opportunity  come 
for  the  fullest  expression. 

Some  of  the  difficulties  commonly  associated  in 
the  mind  with  the  thought  of  the  pre-existence  and 
rebirth  of  the  soul  will  disappear  if  we  do  not  lose 
sight  of  the   fact  that  the   soul  is  a   center  of  con- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  111 

sciousness,  which  is  always  consciousness  somewhere, 
but  which  very  gradually  shifts  its  fdcus  from  plane 
to  plane.  Its  permanent  home  is  in  that  body  of 
filmy  matter  drawn  about  the  ego  in  the  higher  levels 
of  the  heaven  world.  From  that  point  it  sends  en- 
ergies outward  and  draws  about  itself  in  the  lower 
levels  of  the  mental  world  a  bodv,  or  vehicle  of  con- 
sciousness, that  is  not  permanent  but  which  will  serve 
the  purpose  of  functioning  for  a  period  on  that  plane. 
Downward  again  the  energies  are  sent,  building  about 
the  center  of  consciousness  on  the  astral  plane  a  tem- 
porary body  of  astral  matter,  temporary  in  the  same 
sense  that  the  physical  body  is  temporary,  and  which 
shall  serve  the  consciousness  in  the  astral,  or  emo- 
tional world,  during  the  whole  of  the  physical  plane 
life  and  for  some  time  afterward.  Still  outward,  or 
downward,  the  soul  sends  its  energies  till  the  material 
world  is  reached,  when  it  begins  to  function  partially, 
and  very  feebly,  through  the  infant  physical  body. 

For  the  time  being  the  soul's  evolution  lies  on  the 
physical  plane  where  certain  lessons  are  to  be  learned. 
After  the  early  years  of  childhood  are  over  the  con- 
sciousness is  firmly  anchored  here,  where  the  chief 
work  is  to  be  done,  during  the  hours  of  the  waking 
consciousness.  During  sleep  the  ego  temporarily  lays 
aside  the  physical  body  and  functions  in  the  astral 
body  in  the  astral  world.  The  material  body  sleep- 
ing here  is  merely  a  deserted  and  empty  vehicle, 
magnetically  connected  with  the  soul,  and  awaiting 
its  return. 

As     childhood,     youth,     maturity     and     old     age 


112  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

pass,  complex  experiences  come  to  the  soul  thus 
functioning  here.  Other  souls  functioning  through 
physical  bodies  are  encountered  and  various 
relationships  are  established.  Out  of  the  complexity 
of  social,  business,  religious  and  political  activities 
the  soul  gets  a  large  and  varied  experience.  Sooner 
or  later  the  death  of  the  physical  body  closes  the  chap- 
ter. The  gathering  of  such  experience  has  ceased, 
not  because  the  soul  has  acquired  all  possible  physical 
world  knowledge,  but  because  its  instrument  of  con- 
sciousness here  has  worn  out. 

Death  cuts  the  soul  off  from  its  physical  plane  con- 
nection and  the  center  of  its  consciousness  is  then 
shifted  to  the  astral  plane.  There  the  purgative 
process  goes  forward,  as  explained  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter. As  that  proceeds  the  soul  gradually  gets  free 
from  one  grade  of  astral  matter  after  another  and  with 
the  loss  of  each  the  man  becomes  conscious  on  a 
higher  level.  The  physical  body  is  lost  suddenly  but 
the  matter  of  the  astral  body  gradually  wears  away 
until  there  is  so  little  left  that  the  soul  has  lost  con- 
nection with  the  astral  world  also.  This  means  that 
the  center  of  consciousness  has  shifted  to  the  mental 
plane,  or  heaven  world,  where  the  man  will  function 
on  the  lower  levels. 

There  in  the  mental  world,  functioning  through 
the  vehicle  of  mental  matter,  a  very  important  process 
goes  on.  The  heaven  world  life  is  a  harvest  time  in 
which  assimilation  of  experience  takes  place.  The 
consciousness  there  deeply  broods  over  the  experi- 
ences of  life  and  extracts  the  essence  from  them  which 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  113 

is  transmuted  into  faculty  and  power  for  future 
greater  expression.  It  is  thus  that  the  soul  grows  in 
wisdom  and  power  through  its  long  evolution. 

When  the  heaven  life  is  finished,  when  the  harvest 
of  experience  has  been  threshed  out  and  the  net  gain 
has  been  built  into  the  enduring  causal  body,  the 
mental  body,  like  the  astral,  has  been  completely  dis- 
sipated. The  end  of  a  cycle  of  experience — of  a  day 
in  the  evolutionary  school — has  come  and  the  physical, 
astral  and  mental  bodies  have  all  perished.  Nothing 
remains  but  the  soul,  the  real  man,  the  ego,  function- 
ing through  the  causal  body  which  persists.  From 
that  the  ego  again  sends  the  forces  outward,  in  the 
first  activity  toward  rebirth,  first  forming  a  new 
mental  body  by  drawing  about  itself  the  matter  of  the 
lower  levels  of  the  mental  plane,  then  securing  a  new 
astral  body  on  the  astral  plane  and  finally  taking  pos- 
session of  another  infant  body  in  process  of  formation 
on  the  physical  plane,  into  which  it  will  in  due  course 
be  reborn. 

The  period  between  these  successive  appearances 
of  the  soul  in  a  succession  of  physical  bodies  varies 
greatly  and  depends  on  a  number  of  things.  The 
length  of  time  spent  upon  the  astral  plane  has  already 
been  discussed.  The  time  spent  in  the  heaven  world 
depends  upon  the  mental  and  moral  forces  generated 
during  the  physical  and  astral  life.  If  there  is  a  great 
harvest  of  experience  it  will  require  a  longer  time  to 
transmute  it,  while,  of  course,  one  who  has  thought 
little  and  loved  but  little  will  have  a  shorter  period 
there,  for  it  is  the  heart  and  head  forces  that  have 


114  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

their  culmination  in  the  mental  world.  The  question 
is  a  rather  complex  one  and  other  factors  come  into 
play,  including  the  intensity  of  the  heaven  world  life. 
In  general  terms,  however,  it  can  be  said  that  the 
heaven  life  of  the  ordinarily  intelligent  person  will 
commonly  be  a  period  several  times  the  length  of  his 
combined  physical  and  astral  life.  Some  people  will 
have  only  two  or  three  hundred  years  between  incar- 
nations while  others  may  have  six  or  seven  centuries 
and  still  others  a  much  longer  period. 

In  getting  a  right  understanding  of  the  subject 
of  rebirth,  or  reincarnation,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  in 
mind  the  fact  that  the  soul,  or  center  of  individualized 
consciousness,  is  the  man  and  that  the  physical  body 
is  merely  an  instrument  he  uses  for  a  number  of  years ; 
that  the  causal  body  is  his  permanent  body  for  the 
whole  of  human  evolution;  that  the  mental  plane  is 
his  home  plane  and  that  from  there  he  sends  forth 
successive  expressions  of  himself  into  these  lower 
planes.  With  such  facts  before  us  there  should  be 
no  confusion  of  thought  about  the  successive  person- 
alities of  an  individual.  Yet  we  sometimes  hear  peo- 
ple speak  of  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  a  person 
can  be  one  man  in  one  incarnation  and  another  man 
at  a  later  rebirth.  Of  course  no  such  thing  occurs. 
An  individual  remains  the  same  individual  forever. 
"But,"  objects  the  critic,  "may  I  not  have  been  Mr. 
Jones,  in  England  six  hundred  years  ago,  whereas  I 
am  now  certainly  Mr.  Brown,  in  America  at  this 
moment?  If  so  is  that  not  a  case  of  being  two  in- 
dividuals?" 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  115 

It  is  certainly  not  a  case  of  being  two  individuals. 
It  is  a  case  of  one  individual  being  expressed  through 
a  physical  body  six  hundred  years  ago  in  England, 
dying  from  it,  spending  a  fairly  long  period  in  the 
astral  plane  and  heaven  world,  and  then  again  express- 
ing himself  through  another  physical  body  in  America 
at  the  present  time.  The  confusion  of  thought  on 
the  part  of  the  questioner  arises  from  thinking  of  the 
physical  body  as  being  the  man.  But  it  is  no  more 
the  man  than  the  clothing  he  wears.  It  is  true  that 
he  is  known  at  one  period  as  Jones  and  at  another  as 
Brown,  but  that  no  more  affects  his  individuality  than 
the  assumption  of  an  alias  by  a  fleeing  criminal 
changes  him.  The  name  applies  exclusively  to  the 
physical  body,  or  personality,  as  distinguished  from 
the  individuality.  That  body  is  but  the  temporary 
clothing  of  the  soul.  Let  us  suppose  that  a  man's 
name  were  applied  to  his  clothing  and  changed  with 
his  clothing  as  it  does  with  his  body.  We  might  then 
know  him  as  Mr.  Lightclothes  in  the  summer  and 
as  Mr.  Darkclothes  in  the  winter,  but  neither  the 
change  of  clothing  or  name  would  in  the  least  degree 
make  him  somebody  else.  The  majority  of  women 
change  their  names  in  each  incarnation.  A  man  may 
know  a  certain  woman  as  Miss  Smith  when  she  is  a 
slip  of  a  girl,  free  from  care  and  with  little  serious 
thought  of  life.  Twenty  years  later  she  may  be  Mrs. 
Brown,  his  wife,  a  thoughtul  matron,  the  mother  of 
children.  She  has  changed  her  name  and  greatly 
changed  in  character,  too,  but  she  is  the  same  in- 
dividual. 


116  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

It  seems  probable  that  a  person  may  change  quite 
as  much  between  infancy  and  old  age  as  between  one 
incarnation  and  the  next.  Even  the  difference  be- 
tween a  youth  of  twenty  years  who  is  an  artist  and 
the  same  man  at  three  score  and  ten  who  has  given 
forty  years  to  scientific  study  and  research,  may  be 
enormous,  but  the  individuality  is,  of  course,  identi- 
cal. It  has  rapidly  evolved  and  greatly  improved,  and 
that  is  just  what  occurs  to  the  soul  by  repeated  re- 
births— steady  evolutionary  development  of  the 
eternal  individual. 

The  reincarnating  process  by  which  the  soul 
evolves  is  somewhat  analogous  to  the  growth  of  a 
young  physical  body.  The  process  consists  of  alter- 
nating periods  of  objective  and  subjective  activity. 
How  does  the  body  of  a  child  grow?  It  consumes 
food,  the  objective  activity.  It  then  digests  and  as- 
similates it,  the  subjective  activity.  These  periods 
must  alternate  or  there  can  be  no  growth,  because 
neither  alone  is  the  complete  process.  The  one  is  the 
complement  of  the  other.  So  it  is  in  the  evolution 
of  the  soul  by  reincarnation.  The  experience  of  life 
is  the  food  on  which  the  soul  grows.  The  physical 
plane  existence  is  the  objective  period  in  which  the 
food  is  gathered.  At  death  the  man  passes  into  the 
invisible  realms  where  the  subjective  process  is  car- 
ried on.  He  digests  and  assimilates  his  experiences 
and  the  gist  is  stored  in  the  causal  body  and  its 
growth  includes  an  actual  increase  in  size,  just  as  in 
the  case  of  the  child's  physical  body. 

The  same  law  governs  mental  and  moral  growth 


ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY  117 

v^—~ ^ imimmimmm — ^ — — — — — ™«^ — — — — — — — • 

as  it  operates  in  our  daily  affairs.  A  young  man  is 
in  college.  How  does  his  intellect  grow?  By  pre- 
cisely the  same  process  of  alternating  periods  of  ob- 
jective and  subjective  activity.  In  the  class  room  the 
instructor  puts  a  methematical  problem  on  the  black- 
board and  explains  it.  With  the  outward  senses  of 
sight  and  hearing,  aided  by  pencil  and  notebook,  the 
student  gathers  the  food  for  mental  growth.  This 
period  of  objective  activity  comes  to  an  end  and  he 
then  retires  to  the  privacy  of  his  room  and  there  the 
subjective  period  begins.  He  deeply  thinks  over  the 
problem.  His  material,  the  food  for  mental  growth, 
is  only  a  few  notes  that  serve  to  keep  the  experience 
in  his  mind.  At  first  all  that  they  signify  is  not  ob- 
vious, but  as  he  turns  the  various  points  over  and 
over  in  his  mind  their  significance  becomes  clearer 
and  fuller.  It  is  the  subjective  process  of  digestion. 
Little  by  little  new  light  dawns  in  the  student's  mind. 
Finally  he  has  complete  comprehension  of  the  mathe- 
matical principles  involved,  and  the  process  of  assimi- 
lation is  finished.  This  subjective  period  is  the  com- 
plement of  the  objective  period  and  they  must  go  on 
alternating  or  intellectual  growth  will  stop.  When 
the  process  of  digestion  and  assimilation  is  finished  the 
student  must  return  to  the  classroom  for  further 
mental  food  and  when  he  arrives  it  is  by  virtue  of 
the  fact  that  he  did  digest  the  previous  lesson  that 
he  is  able  to  take  a  higher  and  more  difficult  one.  And 
precisely  so  it  is  with  the  reincarnating  soul.  In  the 
interval  between  incarnations  it  so  assimilates  the  ex- 
periences of  the   last  physical  life  that  it  comes   to 


118  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

rebirth  with  added  abilities  which  enable  it  to  take 
higher  and  more  difficult  lessons  than  it  could  pre- 
viously master. 

In  the  case  of  both  physical  growth  by  eating  and 
mental  growth  by  instruction  there  is  no  possible 
escape  from  the  law  of  alternating  periods  of  objective 
and  subjective  activity.  When  the  child  has  digested 
and  assimilated  a  meal  there  is  but  one  possible  thing 
that  can  follow — return  to  his  source  of  supply  for 
another  meal.  When  the  student  has  digested  and 
assimilated  the  lesson  given  to  him  the  only  pos- 
sibility of  further  mental  growth  lies  in  his  return  to 
the  class-room  for  more  material.  And  so  it  is  with 
the  human  soul  in  its  work  of  evolving  its  latent 
powers  and  possibilities.  There  is  no  other  road  for- 
ward but  the  cyclic  one  that  brings  it  back  to  the 
physical  life  incarnation  after  incarnation,  but  always 
at  a  higher  point  than  it  previously  touched.  The 
very  hunger  of  the  child  that  insures  its  return  to 
the  table  for  more  food  is  analogous  to  the  desire  of 
the  soul  for  sentient  expression  that  brings  it  to  re- 
birth. 

These  alternating  periods  with  the  element  of 
constant  return  are  found  everywhere  in  the  economy 
of  nature.  All  her  evolutionary  expressions  are 
cyclic.  But  the  cyclic  movement  is  not  in  closed 
circles.  It  represents  a  spiral.  The  "evolutionary 
ladder"  that  the  soul  climbs  is  a  winding  stairway. 
In  its  upward  progress  it  makes  many  rounds  but  it 
is  always  mounting  and  never  returns  to  the  same 
point.     In  each  cycle,  that  is  made  up  of  the  journey 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  119 

from  the  heaven  world  through  the  astral  plane,  into 
the  physical  and  then  back  through  the  astral  plane 
into  the  heaven  world,  it  touches  each  of  them  at  a 
higher  point,  or  in  a  higher  state  of  development,  than 
it  had  previously  attained.  Each  rebirth  finds  it  abler 
here  to  gather  a  larger  harvest  of  experience  and  each 
return  to  the  mental  plane,  or  heaven  world,  finds  it 
abler  to  digest  and  assimilate  its  experiences,  and  to 
comprehend  more  of  the  realities  of  the  life  of  its 
home  plane. 

This  round,  or  cycle,  through  the  physical,  astral 
and  mental  regions,  is  a  continuous  progressive  jour- 
ney of  the  soul  which  began  away  back  at  the  dawn 
of  mind  in  man  and  will  continue  until  he  is  the  per- 
fected mental  and  moral  being.  At  each  incarnation 
here  he  gathers  experience  in  proportion  to  his  alert- 
ness and  to  the  opportunities  his  previous  lives  have 
made  for  him.  He  learns  to  help  others,  to  be  sym- 
pathetic, to  be  tolerant.  Such  activities  will  give  him 
pleasure  in  the  astral  life  and  joy  and  wisdom  in  the 
mental  region,  or  heaven  world.  But  he  also  does 
some  evil  things.  He  makes  enemies,  he  generates 
hatred  and  he  injures  others.  This  will  give  him  dis- 
tress in  the  astral  life  and  no  results  for  soul  growth 
or  general  progress  in  the  heaven  world.  If  he  does 
an  equal  amount  of  good  and  harm  his  progress  will 
be  slow.  If  he  does  much  good  and  little  evil  his 
progress  will  be  rapid  and  his  existence  happy.  If  he 
is  a  man  of  great  energy,  and  no  very  great  moral 
development,  and  selfishly  does  much  wrong,  he  will 
suffer  much  in  the  astral  life. 


120 ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

If  often  puzzles  the  student  of  elementary  theos- 
ophy  to  be  told  that  the  soul  passes  through  the  pur- 
gation of  the  astral  plane  and  goes  on  into  the  heaven 
world  only  to  return  to  another  incarnation  and  later 
to  again  enter  the  astral  purgatory.  Why,  it  is  asked, 
must  one  who  has  thus  been  purified  be  again  puri- 
fied? The  astral  reactions  are  the  results  of  the  blun- 
ders made  in  each  incarnation.  Each  of  us  in  any 
given  incarnation  creates  by  his  wrong  doing  the 
purgatory  that  awaits  him  after  death.  If  he  does  no 
wrong  there  cannot  possibly  be  any  reaction.  As  a 
matter  of  occult  fact  the  average  good  man  will  find 
the  astral  plane  life  a  happy  existence  and  will  soon 
pass  on  to  the  blissful  heaven  world.  As  for  the  evil 
doer  the  suffering  relates  only  to  his  evil  deeds.  Let 
us  say  he  has  committed  murder.  When  the  reaction 
of  the  evil  force  he  has  generated  is  over  and  he 
passes  on  into  the  heaven  plane  it  does  not  mean 
that  he  is  incapable  of  future  evil.  It  means  that  he 
has  probably  learned  thoroughly  the  lesson  that  it  is 
very  foolish  to  take  life.  But  there  are  many  other 
lessons  he  has  not  learned.  When  he  passes  into  the 
heaven  world  he  leaves  all  evil  behind  him.  He  is 
as  one  who  puts  his  shoes  aside  to  enter  a  temple. 
The  astral  body,  like  the  physical,  has  perished  and 
it  is  the  freed  soul  that  enters  the  heaven  world.  But 
when  he  returns  through  the  astral  plane  to  reincar- 
nation he  is  clothed  again  in  astral  matter  and  this 
new  astral  body  is  exactly  representative  of  his  at- 
tainments in  evolution.  In  his  coming  incarnation  he 
will  have  other  physical  plane  experiences  and  learn 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  121 

other  lessons.  The  next  time  probably  he  will  not 
kill,  but  perhaps  he  will  cheat  and  steal  or  be  a  drunk- 
ard. These  errors  will  react  upon  him  in  the  astral 
life  that  follows.  In  a  coming  incarnation  he  will 
be  wise  enough  to  be  temperate  and  neither  cheat  nor 
steal;  but  perhaps  he  will  be  a  gossip  and  work  much 
evil  through  slander.  This  in  turn  will  bring  its  pain. 
And  so  in  time  he  will  learn  to  generate  no  evil  force 
at  all  but  to  live  in  good  will  and  helpfulness  toward 
everybody.  Then  his  progress  will  be  rapid  indeed, 
his  life  on  all  planes  will  be  happy  and  the  painful 
part  of  human  evolution  will  be  over. 

The  purpose  of  evolution  is  no  less  obvious  than 
the  fact  of  evolution.  Evolution  is  an  unfolding 
process  in  which  the  latent  becomes  the  active  and 
the  inner  life  is  more  and  more  fully  expressed  in 
outer  form.  The  development  and  improvement  in 
form  keeps  pace  with  the  necessities  of  the  unfolding 
life.  In  the  lowest  levels  of  the  animal  kingdom  the 
form  is  but  a  cell.  But  as  the  life  comes  into  fuller 
and  fuller  expression,  limbs  for  locomotion  and,  in 
due  course,  the  organs  for  hearing,  and  seeing,  and 
the  other  mechanism  of  the  developing  consciousness, 
are  evolved.  In  the  human  kingdom  the  vehicle  of 
consciousness  comes  to  its  highest  possible  from  and 
then  evolution  goes  on  in  the  perfecting  of  the  physical 
form.  In  the  process  of  continually  changing  the 
matter  of  the  body  it  is  possible  for  the  brain  to  be 
constantly  improved  and  the  whole  body  to  grow 
more  and  more  sensitive  and  gradually  to  become  a 
better  and  truer  expression  of  the  evolving  life  within. 


122  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

In  each  incarnation  the  physical  body  thus  improves. 
The  evolution  of  life  and  form  keep  pace.  Ultimately 
perfection  of  form,  as  well  as  perfection  of  intellect  and 
morality,  will  be  reached  and  human  evolution  will 
be  finished. 

The  purpose  of  evolution,  then,  is  clear.  Man  is  a 
god  in  the  making — not  actually,  but  only  potentially 
a  god,  a  being  to  whom  all  wisdom,  perfect  compas- 
sion and  unlimited  power  are  possible ;  and  by  the 
process  of  evolution  he  changes  the  latent  into  the 
active.  He  is  at  first  only  an  individualized  center 
of  consciousness  within  the  All-Consciousness,  a  mere 
fragment  of  the  divine  life.  His  relationship  to  God 
is  something  like  that  of  a  seed  to  its  plant,  a  product 
of  it  that  has  latent  within  it  all  the  characteristics 
of  the  plant  and  the  power  to  become  a  plant.  It  is 
not  a  plant  and  neither  is  man  a  god ;  but  when  it 
has  sent  out  a  sprout  and  taken  root  in  the  soil  it  is 
a  plant  in  the  making;  and  when  the  human  being 
has  begun  to  evolve  his  latent  spiritual  qualities  he 
is  a  god  in  the  making.  The  theosophical  view  is  that 
man  is  essentially  divine. 

Critics  sometimes  ask  why,  if  man  is  originally 
divine,  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  pass  through  any 
evolutionary  process.  Divinity  here  indicates  merely 
the  essential  nature  of  the  human  being,  not  his  pos- 
session of  either  knowledge  or  power  or  any  degree 
of  spiritual  perfection.  It  is  as  though  we  should  say 
that  the  infant  son  of  a  great  king  is  royal.  The  word 
"royal,"  like  the  word  "divine,"  indicates  a  relation- 
ship.    The  baby  royalist  is  not  a  king.     But  he  is  a 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  123 

king  in  the  making.  He  has  much  to  learn.  He 
must  be  educated  in  statecraft  and  he  must  evolve 
diplomacy.  After  much  experience  and  development 
he  will,  in  time,  be  capable  of  ruling  an  empire.  At 
present  this  helpless  infant  bears  little  resemblance  to 
a  king.  Nevertheless,  on  the  day  of  his  birth  he  was 
as  much  royal  as  he  will  ever  be.  In  the  same  sense 
the  divinity  of  man  represents  potential  possibilities 
rather  than  an  obvious  fact  of  the  moment.  Man  is  an 
embryo  god  and,  in  time,  he  shall  evolve  faculties 
and  powers  that  his  present  limited  consciousness  can 
not  even  comprehend.  He  is  not  an  ephemeral  crea- 
ture of  physical  origin  that  lives  a  brief  span  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  immortality  and  perish,  but  the  death- 
less son  of  the  living  God,  and  by  right  divine  he 
walks  the  upward  way  of  eternal  life. 

Some  people  appear  to  accept  evolution  as  a  matter 
of  course,  in  a  general  way,  but  they  appear  unwill- 
ing to  admit  that  the  race  has  really  made  any  evo- 
lutionary progress.  Even  scientific  men  have  some- 
times expressed  doubt  whether  the  world  is  growing 
better.  In  a  newspaper  interview  an  English  scien- 
tist was  quoted  as  saying  a  few  years  ago  that  the 
race  is  just  as  wicked  today  as  at  any  time  within 
recorded  history.  But  if  he  was  correctly  reported 
it  must  have  been  a  hasty  expression  of  opinion  which 
a  little  deliberation  would  have  led  him  to  revise.  It 
is  true  that  things  are  still  bad  enough  but  they  are 
certainly  enormously  better  than  they  were  some 
centuries  ago.  To  say  that  the  world  is  full  of  crime 
and  violence  proves  nothing;  nor  does  even  the  fact 


124  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

that  a  civilized  nation  has  reverted  to  the  wartime 
practices  of  savage  life  furnish  real  ground  for  a  pes- 
simistic view.  What  we  have  to  do  in  determining 
whether  there  has  been  any  racial  progress  in  moral- 
ity is  to  take  as  our  standard  of  measurement  some- 
thing that  tests  the  collective  conscience.  How  does 
the  world  of  today  view  war  and  how  did  the  world 
in  the  day  of  Caesar  regard  it?  There  is  plenty  to 
shock  us  now  but  the  very  fact  that  it  does  shock  us 
is  the  best  evidence  of  moral  progress.  Atrocities 
were  expected  and  taken  as  a  matter  of  course  some 
centuries  ago.  They  are  not  the  rule  now  but  the 
rare  exception  and  those  guilty  of  them  are  likely  to 
make  their  name  a  by-word  among  nations.  Well 
within  the  era  of  recorded  history  the  usages  of  na- 
tions condemned  prisoners  of  war  to  become  slaves 
for  life.  Now  the  rule  is  to  feed  and  clothe  them  and 
at  the  close  of  the  conflict  to  send  them  home.  A 
simple  thing  like  public  sports  may  be  used  as  a 
measure  of  public  morals.  They  show  what  the  col- 
lective conscience  approves.  In  these  days  there  is 
very  little  of  brutality  in  public  sports.  Professional 
pugilism  still  lingers,  but  barely  lingers,  in  the  most 
enlightened  nations.  In  less  progressive  countries 
like  Spain  and  Mexico  bull  fighting  is  popular.  That 
is  about  all  we  can  say  against  modern  popular  en- 
tertainment. But  if  we  look  backward  to  the  Roman 
period  we  find  a  cruelty  in  public  sports  that  is  com- 
paratively shocking.  Gladiators  were  compelled  to 
fight  to  the  death  and  offenders  were  devoured  by 
starving  wild  beasts  and  it  all  made  a  Roman  holiday. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  125 

Such  "sports"  would,  of  course,  be  utterly  impossible 
anywhere  in  the  world  today.  But  at  that  time  they 
were  matters  of  course  in  the  life  of  the  world's  great- 
est empire.  The  fact  that  the  race  has  evolved  mor- 
ally and  that  the  collective  conscience  marks  a  higher 
point  on  the  ethical  thermometer  than  in  the  past  is 
too  obvious  for  argument. 

Now,  how  is  that  evolutionary  progress  to  be  ac- 
counted for?  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  the  Christian 
religion  has  wrought  the  change  because,  splendid  as 
are  the  teachings  of  the  Christ,  the  world  has  not  ac- 
cepted them  and  shaped  its  civilization  by  them.  If 
it  had  done  so  the  world  war  would  have  been  impos- 
sible. Not  only  have  the  so-called  Christian  nations 
wrangled  and  fought  over  commercial  spoils  through 
all  their  history  but  class  has  been  arrayed  against 
class  and  every  gain  in  either  personal  liberty  or 
economic  improvement  has  been  wrested  by  force 
from  those  who  profited  by  the  misfortunes  of  others. 
In  other  words,  the  particular  improvements  that 
should  have  been  brought  about  by  religion  were 
compelled,  not  freely  volunteered.  All  religious 
teaching  helps  but,  allowing  all  we  reasonably  may 
for  the  influence  of  Christianity,  we  are  still  unable  to 
account  for  the  change  in  the  common  conscience  of 
the  race,  an  evolutionary  gain  that  has  been  going 
steadily  on  since  long,  long  before  the  coming  of  the 
Christ.     How  then  shall  we  account  for  it? 

If  the  hypothesis  of  reincarnation  is  sound  the 
progress  of  the  race  in  morality  becomes  simple.  The 
majority  of  the  great  groups  of  souls  that  constituted 


126  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

the  civilized  nations  in  the  time  when  Rome  was 
mistress  of  the  world  have  had  several  incarnations 
in  that  time  and  in  each  sojourn  on  the  astral  plane 
have  had  the  severe  lesson  of  the  painful  reaction 
from  cruelty  to  others.  Thus  does  nature  gradually 
change  the  cruel  man  to  the  merciful  man.  In  every 
incarnation  the  soul  grows  more  humane  as  well  as 
more  intelligent.  All  of  the  lessons  learned  in  any 
incarnation  are  carried  forward  into  the  next  life,  and 
thus  compassion  grows  until  there  is  ultimately  per- 
fect sympathy  with  all  suffering.  Both  the  progress 
of  the  soul  and  of  the  race  are  comprehensible  from 
the  viewpoint  of  reincarnation. 

Except  by  that  hypothesis  how  is  it  possible  to 
explain  such  evolutionary  progress?  Those  who  do 
not  believe  in  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul  and  hold 
that  it  is  in  some  way  brought  into  being  at  the  time 
of  conception  or  birth,  are  put  in  the  very  illogical 
position  of  saying  that  the  reason  why  the  world  is 
better  now  than  it  was  in  the  Roman  period  is  be- 
cause it  pleases  God  to  create  a  better  kind  of  souls 
now  than  he  created  then! 

The  tendency  of  large  groups  of  people,  tribes  or 
nations,  to  act  in  a  way  that  imitates,  or  nearly  dupli- 
cates, what  has  been  done  centuries  before  by  other 
tribes  or  nations,  is  such  a  common  phenomenon  that 
it  has  given  rise  to  the  declaration  that  history  re- 
peats itself.  The  fact  of  reincarnation  shows  why  it 
repeats  itself.  A  nation  like  the  Romans,  or  the  Car- 
thaginians, are  bound  together  in  the  subtle  ties  that 
are  formed  by  the  intimate  relationships  of  constant 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  127 

association.  The  group  tends  to  persist  and  the  mem- 
bers of  it  are  largely  drawn  together  and  regrouped 
in  the  following  incarnations.  All  have  evolved  be- 
yond the  level  of  the  previous  centuries  but  the  gen- 
eral traits  and  tendencies  remain  and  the  same  gen- 
eral policies  are  likely  to  shape  the  national  affairs. 
There  comes  a  time  in  the  existence  of  the  great  group, 
or  nation,  when  the  old  environment  will  no  longer 
serve  for  its  further  collective  evolution  as  well  as 
some  other  country.  The  majority  then  reincarnate 
elsewhere  and  the  old  country  comes  gradually  to  be 
inhabited  by  a  different  great  group  of  souls.  Hence 
the  remarkable  difference  in  the  people  of  a  given 
nation  in  different  periods.  Compare  Rome  in  the 
time  of  Caesar  to  Rome  late  in  the  Middle  Ages,  or 
compare  the  mighty  civilization  of  ancient  Egypt  with 
modern  Egypt.  It  is  high-class  egos  that  make  a 
great  nation  and  when  a  country  has  no  more  lessons 
to  teach  them,  or  rather  when  another  country  will 
serve  as  a  better  environment  for  their  further 
progress,  they  return  in  rebirth  to  the  more  advan- 
tageous spot  on  the  earth,  and  a  different  set  of  souls 
come  into  possession  of  the  abandoned  environment. 
The  valley  of  the  Nile,  that  was  once  the  home  of  an 
energetic  people  with  a  flourishing  civilization  would 
not  now  serve  such  a  purpose.  The  center  of  virile 
civilization  has  shifted  to  central  and  northern  Europe 
because  only  that  environment,  in  full  touch  with  the 
great  commercial  stream  of  the  economic  world,  can 
serve  the  purpose.  As  the  world  is  today  what  could 
a  pushing,  energetic,  up-to-date  group  of  souls  do  if 


128  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

born  into  Egypt?  Nothing  but  leave  it.  So  they  are 
not  reincarnated  there,  but  other  souls  that  are  at  the 
point  in  evolution  where  the  primitive  life  of  an  iso- 
lated country  will  give  the  simpler  lessons  they  must 
acquire,  inherit  the  abandoned  environment.  As  an 
individual  moves  continually  onward  in  each  return 
to  incarnation  to  professional  and  business  environ- 
ments that  will  enable  him  to  put  into  effect  all  the 
new  skill  and  wisdom  he  has  gained,  so  a  nation  goes 
on  to  greater  and  greater  opportunities.  Souls  that 
made  the  greatness  of  Greece  and  Carthage  and  Rome 
are  now  making  the  greatness  of  Europe  and  America. 
Such  facts  explain  many  things  that  have  seemed 
puzzling.  How,  for  example,  was  it  possible  for  the 
world's  greatest  civilization  to  spring  up  suddenly  in 
Europe  from  barbarous  peoples?  When  Rome  de- 
clined— declined  because  her  people  largely  reincar- 
nated elsewhere — Europe  was  inhabited  by  slightly 
civilized  hordes.  To  assume  that  since  then,  in  a 
few  centuries — a  mere  passing  moment  in  the  great 
lapse  of  time  required  for  race  evolution — the  civili- 
zation to  today  could  arise,  would  be  to  ignore  the 
fundamentals  of  evolution.  But  when  we  understand 
that  great  groups  of  old  souls  incarnate  in  the  strong 
physical  bodies  which  the  more  primitive  peoples  could 
bring  into  the  world,  the  mystery  of  the  rapid  rise  of 
a  great  civilization  in  Europe  is  solved. 

The  principle  of  rebirth  holds  also  with  the  animal 
kingdom  at  a  high  level  in  it.  The  last  phase  of  evo- 
lution in  the  animal  kingdom  is  the  individualizing 
of  the  consciousness.    A  particularly  intelligent  cat  or 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  129 

dog,  for  example,  may  be  just  finishing  animal  evolu- 
tion and  will  be  reborn  at  the  lowest  human  level. 
Previous  to  its  individualization  it  evolves  in  a 
group  with  others  of  its  kind,  animated  by  a 
common  ensoulment  that  has  not  reached  the  level 
of  complete  self-consciousness.  At  that  group-soul 
stage  the  experience  of  each  animal  in  the  group 
adds  to  the  knowledge  of  all.  This  theosophical 
teaching  on  one  of  nature's  most  interesting  facts  en- 
ables us  to  understand  many  things  that  would  other- 
wise remain  mysterious.  Instinct  has  never  been  ex- 
plained by  science.  Some  of  its  best  known  expres- 
sions are  altogether  mysterious.  Why  does  a  young 
wild  animal  hide  from  the  enemies  of  its  kind  but  not 
from  friends,  when  it  has  never  seen  either?  A  quail 
a  day  old  will  fall  upon  its  side  with  a  chip  or  small 
stone  or  bit  of  grass  firmly  clutched  in  its  tiny  claws 
to  hide  its  body,  and  remain  perfectly  motionless  at 
the  approach  of  a  human  being,  but  will  take  no  alarm 
at  the  passing  of  a  squirrel  or  a  rabbit.  How  does  a 
young  chick  know  the  difference  between  a  crow  and 
a  hawk?  And  why,  in  remote  places  like  the  antarctic 
regions,  are  both  young  and  old  birds  and  animals 
unafraid  of  man?  The  group-soul  is  a  clear  and 
simple  explanation  of  all  such  phenomena.  The 
youngest  have  the  knowledge  of  the  oldest  because 
consciousness.  The  young  quails  of  this  season  come 
they  are  attached  to  the  same  group-soul,  or  source  of 
back  to  rebirth  from  the  group-soul  that  is  the  store- 
house of  the  experiences  of  the  quails  that  were  killed 
by  men  in  past  seasons,  and  thus  all  young  things 


130  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

know  the  common  enemy.  In  the  remote  regions  re- 
ferred to  the  killing  proclivities  of  the  human  being 
have  not  become  known  and  there  is  no  "instinct"  to 
warn. 

An  excellent  bit  of  evidence  on  the  subject  of  the 
group-soul  is  the  fact,  often  chronicled  but  not 
explained,  that  when  telephone  or  telegraph  lines  are 
built  in  new  countries  the  birds  fly  against  the  wires 
and  are  killed  by  thousands,  the  first  season.  But 
when  the  next  season's  birds  are  hatched  they  are 
wise  and  avoid  the  wires !  If  the  group-soul  were  not 
a  fact  in  nature  it  would  naturally  require  a  long  time 
for  wire  education.  No  such  sudden  adjustment 
would  be  possible. 

Reincarnation  represents  continuous  evolution 
with  no  waste  of  time  or  loss  of  energy.  Death  is  not 
the  sudden  break  in  the  life  program  that  the  popular 
belief  pictures  it.  The  common  view  of  death  is  as 
erroneous  as  the  common  view  of  birth.  If  death  were 
what  most  people  believe  it  to  be  it  would  constitute 
a  blunder  of  nature — an  irrational  interruption  of 
orderly  development.  In  nature's  economy  there  is 
conservation  of  energy  and  no  loss  can  arise  through 
the  change  called  death.  If  the  popular  belief  that  at 
death  we  go  far  away  to  a  totally  different  kind  of 
existence  were  sound  then  death  would  usually  mean 
an  enormous  waste.  A  young  man  is  educated  for 
some  particular  work,  engineering,  architecture  or 
statecraft,  and  graduates  only  perhaps  to  die  soon 
afterward.  All  that  time  and  energy  spent  in  getting 
such  an  education  would  be  largely  lost  either  if  death 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  131 

ends  all,  or  is  the  last  he  will  know  of  the  material 
world.  But  nature  does  not  thus  blunder.  Her  law 
*of  conservation  is  always  operative.  All  the  skill  and 
wisdom  acquired  will  be  brought  back  in  rebirth  and 
will  be  used  in  the  future  incarnations. 

A  child  in  school  is  a  fair  analogy  for  a  soul  in 
evolution.  The  child  cannot  get  an  education  in  a 
term  nor  in  a  year.  He  must  return  often  to  the  same 
school,  after  the  rest  of  regular  vacations.  He  may 
use  new  books  with  higher  lessons  but  he  returns  peri- 
odically to  the  same  environment.  Continuous  at- 
tendance would  be  as  unthinkable  as  finishing  his 
education  in  a  single  term.  In  evolution  the  soul  re- 
turns periodically  to  the  physical  world,  or  plane,  for 
the  same  reasons.  Continuous  life  here  until  all 
material  experience  is  gained  would  be  impossible. 
Aside  from  the  need  of  the  double  process  of  acquir- 
ing and  digesting  experience  the  physical  body  would 
become  a  hindrance  to  evolution.  Within  certain 
limits  the  physical  brain  can  respond  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  growing  soul,  but  a  new  body  is  in  time 
an  absolute  necessity  to  further  evolution. 

If  we  give  a  little  thought  to  the  evolutionary 
progress  the  ordinary  person  must  make  to  raise  him 
to  mental  and  moral  perfection,  the  absurdity  of  a 
single  lifetime  becomes  apparent.  Consider,  a 
moment,  intellectual  perfection.  It  would  mean  a  de- 
velopment of  the  mind  to  the  point  of  genius  in  many 
directions.  If  we  combine  into  one  mind  the  attain- 
ments of  the  mathematical  genius,  the  musical  genius', 
the  inventive  genius,  the  statecraft  genius,  and  so  on 


132  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

until  every  line  of  intellectual  activity  is  included,  we 
then  have  only  the  perfect  mental  man.  On  the  moral 
side  we  must  add  to  that  the  combined  qualities  of 
the  saints.  Then  we  have  the  perfected  human  being, 
with  nothing  more  to  be  learned  from  incarnation 
here.  His  further  evolution  belongs  to  superphysical 
realms. 

In  trying  to  comprehend  the  evolution  of  the  soul, 
that  slowly  changes  it  life  after  life  from  the  savage 
to  the  civilized  state  and  finally  raises  it  to  perfection, 
it  is  helpful  to  observe  how  this  great  work  cor- 
responds to  the  smaller  cycle  of  a  single  incarnation. 
A  great  character  in  history  begins  with  helpless  in- 
fancy. Steadily  he  progresses,  unfolding  new  power 
at  each  step.  He  passes  through  the  graded  schools, 
slowly  acquiring  elementary  lessons.  College  follows 
with  higher  and  more  difficult  mental  acquirements. 
Then  he  enters  professional  life  and  begins  to  use  his 
intellect  with  more  and  more  initiative.  He  moves 
on  into  public  life  with  increased  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities. From  one  post  of  honor  he  rises  to  another 
with  increasing  ability  and  mastery,  until  at  last  he  is 
the  head  of  a  nation  and  has  become  a  world  figure. 
Even  so  it  is  in  the  evolution  of  the  soul.  Life  by 
life  we  rise,  evolving  new  powers  and  virtues  amidst 
every  increasing  opportunities  and  responsibilities.  In 
one  incarnation  we  have  conditions  that  evolve  cour- 
age. In  another  we  are  thrown  into  situations  that 
develop  tolerance.  In  still  another  we  acquire 
patience  and  balance.  In  all  of  these  incarnations  we 
steadily  evolve  intellect  and  strengthen  all  previously 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  133 

acquired  virtues.  In  each  life  we  find  the  new  con- 
ditions that  are  necessary  for  the  exercise  of  our  added 
abilities  and,  ultimately,  with  the  powers,  the  spiritual 
insight  and  the  ripened  wisdom  of  the  gods  them- 
selves, we  move  forward  to  higher  fields  of  evolution. 


CHAPTER  X. 

REBIRTH:  ITS  JUSTICE 

No  matter  how  much  we  may  differ  in  our  view 
of  the  relationship  between  God  and  man  there  is 
general  agreement  about  the  attributes  of  the  Supreme 
Being.  All  ascribe  to  him  unlimited  power,  wisdom, 
love  and,  of  course,  the  perfection  of  all  those  desir- 
able qualities  we  see  in  human  beings.  The  theo- 
sophical  view  is  that  all  we  know  in  man  of  power, 
wisdom,  love,  justice,  beauty,  harmony,  et  cetera,  are 
faint  but  actual  manifestations  of  the  attributes  of 
the  deity.  All  who  are  not  materialists,  denying  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  will  agree  that  the 
wisdom  and  justice  of  God  must  be  perfect.  It  would 
be  illogical  and  inconsistent  to  limit  or  qualify  His 
attributes.  Either  He  is  all-wise  and  absolutely  just, 
or  else  the  materialist  is  right.  We  cannot  have  a 
deity  at  all  unless  He  represents  perfect  justice. 

Another  point  on  which  all  but  the  materialists 
must  agree  is  that  creation  is  so  ordered  that  the 
common  welfare  of  humanity  is  best  served  by  just 
the  conditions  of  life  that  surround  us.  Nothing  is 
different  from  what  it  should  be  unless  it  is  because 
of  man's  failure  to  do  what  he  should  do  for  his  own 

135 


136  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

welfare.  If  it  were  otherwise  what  would  become  of 
the  argument  that  an  omniscient  God  has  ordered  it 
as  it  is?  If,  then,  things  are  as  they  should  be  in  the 
truest  interests  of  man,  and  we  find  things  in  life 
that,  according  to  our  views  of  creation,  are  not  right 
and  just,  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  views  we  hold 
are  erroneous. 

The  popular  belief  is  that  human  beings  constitute 
a  special  creation ;  that  whenever  a  baby  is  born  God 
creates  a  soul  or  consciousness  for  that  body  and  that 
after  a  life  of  many  years,  or  a  few  days,  or  a  few 
minutes,  as  the  case  may  be,  the  body  dies  and  the 
consciousness  goes  to  dwell  in  remote  regions  for 
ever  and  ever.  If  the  person  lived  a  good  life  and 
also  believed  in  the  current  religion  he  will  be  "saved" 
and  will  be  eternally  happy.  If  he  did  not  live  a  good 
life  but  finally  "believed"  before  death  he  will  be 
saved  anyway  and  be  just  as  happy  as  though  he  had 
lived  right  from  the  start.  If  he  did  live  a  good  life, 
but  was  not  born  with  the  ability  to  believe  easily, 
he  will  be  lost  and  will  be  eternally  miserable.  Ac- 
cording to  this  theory  of  special  creation  God  makes 
people  of  all  sorts.  None  of  them  can  help  being 
what  they  are  created.  Some  are  wise  and  some  are 
foolish.  Those  who  are  smart  enough  to  find  the  way 
of  salvation  will  finally  have  heaven  added  to  their 
original  gift  of  wisdom.  Those  who  are  not  smart 
enough  to  find  it  will  finally  have  hell  added  to  their 
original  lack  of  sense.  This  is  what  some  people  are 
pleased  to  call  divine  justice! 

It  will  hardly  do  to  argue  that  the  possibility  that 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  137 

all  may  at  last  be  happy  in  an  endless  heaven,  makes 
it  unimportant  that  there  are  inequalities  now.  The 
majority  of  the  theologians  do  not  admit  that  such  a 
state  awaits  the  whole  of  the  human  race,  and  the 
comparatively  few  who  do  believe  it  will  hardly  ven- 
ture to  assert  that  present  justice  can  be  determined 
tby  future  happiness.  Even  if  we  positively  knew 
that  eternal  bliss  awaited  everybody  after  the  close 
of  this  physical  life  how  could  that  make  it  just  that 
one  person  shall  be  born  a  congenital  criminal  and 
another  shall  be  born  a  poet  and  philosopher?  How 
could  it  make  it  right  that  one  is  born  to  life-long 
illness,  suffering  and  poverty,  while  another  inherits 
both  wealth  and  a  sound  physical  body?  Not  even 
the  certainty  of  future  happiness  would  be  compensa- 
tion for  present  inequalities.  But  why  should  there 
be  any  such  inequalities  if  God  represents  unlimited 
power  and  perfect  justice?  Why  should  there  be  any 
poverty  when,  if  He  really  created  the  soul  itself  in- 
stantaneously, He  can  as  certainly  create  any  neces- 
sary condition  for  the  soul?  Why  poverty  and  disease 
and  suffering  at  all?  There  must  be  a  better  answer 
to  such  questions  than  that  "it  pleased  God  to  have 
it  so."  It  is  surely  little  better  than  blasphemy  to 
suggest  that  any  kind  of  hard  conditions  for  man  are 
pleasing  to  the  deity. 

To  hold  that  any  future  condition  of  happiness  can 
make  present  justice  out  of  the  truly  terrible  inequal- 
ities of  life,  would  be  much  like  a  millionaire  who  has 
two  sons  giving  one  of  them  all  the  advantages  of 
wealth,   travel,    skilled   instructors    and    special   care, 


138  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

while  the  other  was  permitted  to  wear  rags  and  go 
hungry.  If  the  neglected  son  asked  why  he  was  thus 
treated  while  his  brother  was  most  carefully  provided 
for,  the  father  might  reply  with  some  indignation, 
"You  are  to  have  plenty  in  the  future !  My  will  is  so 
drawn  that  when  I  die  my  great  wealth  will  be  equally 
divided  between  you  and  your  brother.  You  will  then 
be  a  millionaire  with  more  money  than  you  can  pos- 
sibly spend.  So  don't  be  foolish  about  your  hard- 
ships now.  Learn  to  starve  like  a  gentleman!"  The 
father's  position  in  such  a  case  would  be  just  as 
reasonable  as  that  of  those  who  think  a  heaven  here- 
after can  justify  an  earthly  hell  now. 

Now  let  us  take  some  of  the  particular  facts  of 
life  that  puzzle  us  and  test  them  with  the  hypothesis 
of  special  creation,  and  also  with  the  hypothesis  of 
reincarnation,  and  see  which  can  really  explain  them 
in  a  satisfactory  manner.  We  will  take  some  facts  of 
real  life.  In  a  Massachusetts  prison  there  is  an  old 
man  whose  name  became  familiar  to  many  of  us  in 
our  youth.  He  was  then  known  as  Jesse  Pomeroy, 
the  boy  murderer.  The  present  generation  scarcely 
knows  him.  But  forty  years  or  more  ago  he  was 
talked  about  by  all  the  newspapers.  For  the  crime 
of  murdering  his  playmates  the  boy  was  sent  to  prison 
for  life.  Why  did  Pomeroy  become  a  noted  crminal 
in  childhood?  If  the  theory  of  special  creation  is 
sound  he  was  created  and  put  in  the  world  to  fit  him- 
self for  a  future  heaven.  But  he  was  created  in  such 
fashion  that  he  was  deficient  in  moral  perception  and 
he  began  life  with  an  act  that  led  to  his  expulsion 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  139 

from  society.  If  God  created  this  soul  as  we  first 
knew  him  why  was  he  not  created  with  the  moral 
balance  of  a  law-abiding  citizen  so  that  he  could  have 
lived  long  and  peacefully  in  civilized  society  and  have 
been  prepared  for  heaven  at  death  ?  What  could  have 
been  the  purpose  of  giving  him  a  brain  that  could  not 
think  soundly  and  a  conscience  that  welcomed  murder? 
That  leads  us  inevitably  to  the  question,  Why  are 
criminals  created  at  all?  Why  are  idiots  created? 
The  deeper  we  look  into  the  facts  of  life  the  more 
unsatisfactory  does  the  theory  of  special  creation  be- 
come because  we  find  a  thousand  things  that  contra- 
dict it  and  show  its  inconsistency.  If  the  purpose  of 
God  was  to  create  a  heaven  to  be  enjoyed  by  those 
who  reach  it  we  cannot  see  why  He  should  create  a 
humanity  the  majority  of  which  is  incapable  of  ever 
attaining  it.  If  He  creates  them  as  they  come  into 
the  world  at  birth  why  are  not  all  of  them  created 
wise  and  kind?  Why  must  most  of  them  blunder 
through  life,  making  all  sorts  of  mistakes,  bringing 
suffering  to  others  by  their  unkindness  or  cruelty  and 
only,  in  the  end,  to  pass  from  a  life  of  failure  to  eternal 
punishment  for  that  failure?  There  is  no  reason,  no 
justice,  no  sanity  in  such  a  theory. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  explanation  of  reincarna- 
tion. According  to  that,  Pomeroy  has  had  many  past 
incarnations  and  will  have  many  more.  Like  all  the 
rest  of  us  he  came  up  from  primitive  man.  We  have 
all  learned  the  lessons  of  civilized  life  slowly  by  ex- 
perience like  children  acquiring  lessons  from  their 
books.     The  majority  have  come  along  well  and  de- 


140  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

veloped  a  fair  share  of  intellect  in  dealing  with  life's 
problems,  and  some  degree  of  sympathy  for  others. 
Some  have  evolved  rapidly  like  hard  working  pupils 
and  they  are  called  geniuses.  Some  have  lagged  be- 
hind and  have  learned  very  little.  They  are  like  the 
truants  at  school  who  have  broken  the  rules  and  run 
away  from  their  lessons.  These  laggards  of  the 
human  race  are  the  dullards  and  the  criminals,  who 
have  moved  so  slowly  incarnation  after  incarnation, 
or  are  so  much  younger  in  evolution,  that  they  are 
now  bringing  savage  traits  into  our  present  civilized 
life. 

Reincarnation  not  only  explains  who  and  what  the 
criminal  is  but  it  also  explains  away  the  hell  with 
which  special  creation  threatens  him.  No  hell  awaits 
him  except  that  which  he  has  created  himself  by  what 
he  has  done.  By  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  all  the 
cruelty  and  suffering  he  has  inflicted  will  react  upon 
him  to  his  sorrow,  but  will  also  serve  for  his  enlight- 
enment. In  his  next  incarnation  the  kind  of  body  he 
will  have  and  the  environment  in  which  he  will  live 
will  be  determined  exactly  by  the  thoughts  and  emo- 
tions and  acts  of  this  and  past  incarnations.  He  will 
therefore  neither  go  to  a  heaven  for  which  he  is  not 
fitted  nor  to  a  hell  which  he  does  not  justly  deserve. 
He  will  simply  come  back  in  another  physical  body 
and  have  a  chance  to  try  it  again,  but  he  will  have  to 
make  the  trial  under  the  conditions  which  his  conduct 
has  merited. 

And  what  of  the  idiot?  According  to  special  cre- 
ation we  cannot  possibly  explain  him.     It  would  be 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  141 

blasphemous  to  believe  that  God  creates  a  mindless 
man.  If  one  soul  is  given  a  mind  and  another  is  not, 
and  for  no  reason  whatever,  it  is  the  most  monstrous 
injustice  that  ever  forced  itself  upon  the  understand- 
ing of  man!  Think  for  a  moment  of  the  difference 
between  the  idiot  and  the  normal  person.  The  man 
of  sound  mind  has  before  him  the  opportunity  of 
progress,  of  mental  and  moral  development.  The 
avenues  of  business  and  professional  life  are  open  be- 
fore him.  He  is  free  to  try  his  powers  and  win  his 
way.  Wealth,  power  and  fame  are  all  possible  for 
him.  All  the  joys  of  social  life  may  be  his.  Think 
of  him  surrounded  by  his  family  and  friends,  suc- 
cessful, satisfied,  happy,  and  then  think  of  the  life  of 
the  idiot.  Language  cannot  express  the  horror  of  the 
contrast!  If  there  were  no  other  explanation  of  life 
than  that  of  special  creation  it  would  change  the  world 
into  the  hopeless  hell  of  a  mad-honse.  Again  rein- 
carnation saves  us  from  either  blasphemy  or  madness. 
The  idiot,  like  the  congenital  cripple,  differs  from  the 
normal  man  only  in  the  body,  which  is  the  instrument 
of  the  soul.  Deformity  of  the  body  is  a  limitation  of 
the  ego  who  functions  through  it.  A  withered  arm, 
a  club  foot,  a  deformed  back,  in  this  incarnation  are 
results  of  unfortunate  causes  which  that  soul  has  gen- 
erated in  past  lives.  In  idiocy  the  malformation  is  in 
the  brain.  Of  course  this  is  not  an  accident.  There 
is  no  element  of  chance  which  places  the  limitation 
in  one  body  where  it  causes  but  little  trouble  and  in 
another  where  it  prevents  mental  activity  and  thus 
produces  idiocy.     In  each  case  it  is  the  exact  work- 


142  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

ing  out  of  the  law.  The  body  of  the  idiot  is  the 
physical  plane  representation  of  a  soul  that  has  made 
a  serious  blunder  in  the  past,  possible  by  limiting 
another  with  cruel  restraint,  and  the  gross  misuse  of 
his  intellect  and  power  in  that  way  has  operated  to 
prevent  his  using  it  at  all  in  the  present  life.  But 
such  limitations  belong  to  the  outer  planes.  It  is  the 
form  that  limits  and  when  the  form  perishes  the  limi- 
tation disappears.  As  with  the  criminal  no  hell  is 
needed  to  punish  the  idiot.  He  has  made  his  own  hell 
by  his  mistake  in  the  past  and  in  this  incarnation  he 
must  live  in  it  and  expiate  his  blunder.  Perhaps  it 
may  seem  to  some  that  since  the  idiot  is  incapable 
of  realizing  the  life  of  the  normal  person  the  situation 
represents  no  real  misfortune  for  him.  But  idiocy 
on  the  physical  plane  does  not  mean  idiocy  in  the 
soul.  Even  from  the  astral  plane  the  ego  may  keenly 
feel  the  horror  of  functioning  for  a  lifetime  through 
such  a  physical  body,  as  one  here  would  feel  the 
anguish  of  incarceration  in  a  dungeon. 

The  criminal  and  the  idiot  are  striking  illustrations 
of  the  failure  of  the  theory  of  special  creation  to  sat- 
isfactorily explain  the  facts  of  life.  But  if  we  turn 
to  the  other  extreme  and  consider  the  most  fortunate 
people  in  the  world  we  shall  find  there,  too,  precisely 
the  same  failure  to  explain.  By  the  hypothesis  of 
special  creation  we  find  a  gross  injustice  done  to  the 
soul  born  an  ignoramus.  Yet  we  find  others  posses- 
ing  enough  intelligence  for  several  people.  In  the 
case  of  Macaulay  we  have  the  evidence  in  his  own 
handwriting  in  a  letter  the  date  of  which  proves  his 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  143 

age,  that  he  was  reading  Greek  and  Latin  and  study- 
ing mathematics  deeply  when  seven  years  old.  There 
are  many  other  cases  of  the  remarkable  display  of 
talents  in  childhood,  but  a  single  instance  will  serve 
for  all.  It  is  all  the  better  as  an  illustration  because 
it  is  a  contemporaneous  case  and  the  facts  are  known 
to  scores  of  living  people.  It  is  recorded  of  William 
James  Sidis,  of  Brookline,  Massachusetts,  that  at  six 
years  of  age  he  entered  a  grammar  school  and  in  six 
months  had  completed  the  work  of  seven  grades.  At 
the  age  of  seven  he  had  gone  so  far  with  his  mathe- 
matical studies  that  his  father,  Professor  Boris  Sidis, 
could  be  of  little  assistance  to  him.  He  worked  out 
the  most  abstruse  and  difficult  problems  with  the 
greatest  ease  and  invented  new  systems  of  computa- 
tion which  attracted  much  attention.  When  eight 
years  old  he  entered  the  Brookline  High  School  and 
in  six  weeks  had  completed  the  mathematical  course 
and  began  writing  a  book  on  astronomy.  He  then 
took  up  the  study  of  French,  German,  Latin  and  Rus- 
sian. On  leaving  school  he  took  up  mathematics  as 
a  specialty  and  invented  a  system  of  logarithms  based 
on  the  number  12  instead  of  10.  This  was  inspected 
by  several  well  known  mathematicians  who  pro- 
nounced it  perfect  in  every  detail.  Lie  applied  for 
admission  to  Harvard  University  but  the  authorities 
refused  his  petition  on  account  of  his  youth,  only,  since 
he  could  have  passed  the  examination  with  ease.  He 
tried  again  the  next  year  and  was  again  refused  on 
the  same  ground.  But  at  eleven  years  of  age,  having 
passed  the  entrance  examination  for  the   Massachu- 


144  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

setts  Institute  of  Technology,  he  was  judged  to  know 
enough  of  chemistry  and  kindred  subjects  to  make 
him  eligible  for  admission  to  the  Harvard  medical 
school.  He  then  entered  upon  a  special  course  at 
Harvard  because  the  ordinary  course  in  college  was 
far  below  the  abilities  of  this  boy  of  eleven  years.  Pro- 
fessor James,  of  Harvard,  the  famous  psychologist, 
has  pronounced  him  the  greatest  mental  marvel  he 
ever  knew.  It  is  said  the  young  prodigy  could  recite 
pages  of  Shakespeare  from  memory  at  an  age  when 
the  ordinary  boy  is  learning  his  alphabet. 

In  the  same  city  where  young  Sidis  was  born  we 
find  the  idiot.  Did  God  create  them  both  as  they 
were  born  or  did  they  come  up  to  their  present  differ- 
ence of  mental  equipment  through  a  process  of  evo- 
lution that  accounts  for  it  all  satisfactorily?  If  the 
theory  of  special  creation  is  sound  why  did  not  the 
idiot  get  at  least  a  little  of  the  intellect  that  Sidis 
could  so  easily  have  spared?  If  they  are  the  work  of 
special  creation  it  is  impossible  to  find  reason  or  justice 
in  such  terrible  inequalities.  But  if  reincarnation  is 
God's  method  of  creation  the  explanation  of  the  dif- 
ference between  them  becomes  simple.  Sidis  is  not 
only  an  old  soul  but  evidently  one  who  has  worked 
hard  in  past  lives,  throwing  off  the  lassitude  of  the 
dense  bodies  and  evolving  the  power  of  will  that  en- 
abled him  to  triumph  over  obstacles,  conquering  all 
the  enemies  of  intellectual  progress  and  thus  earning 
the  fine  physical  body  and  brain  he  now  possesses. 
His  present  abilities  are  but  the  sum  total  of  the  en- 
ergies he  has  put  forth  in  the  past. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  145 

The  theory  of  special  creation  does  not  explain 
the  facts  of  life.  It  lacks  justice,  it  lacks  harmony  and 
it  lacks  consistency.  It  is  not  in  accord  with  natural 
law.  Nature  knows  no  such  thing  as  special  crea- 
tion. To  believe  in  special  creation  is  to  ignore  all 
scientific  facts  and  principles.  On  the  other  hand  re- 
incarnation is  in  harmony  with  science  and  with 
natural  law.  Reincarnation  is  evolution  and  every 
kingdom  of  nature  develops  through  evolution.  The 
difference  between  the  shriveled  wild  grain  that 
struggles  with  the  rock  and  soil  for  life  enough  to 
barely  reproduce  itself,  and  the  plump  wheat  of  the 
cultivated  fields  that  feeds  the  world,  is  the  work  of 
evolution.  The  wild  stalk  produced  the  seed  and  from 
that  seed  came  a  better  stalk.  The  better  stalk  pro- 
duced a  still  better  kernel  and  from  that  better  kernel 
sprang  a  superior  stalk  to  yield  a  higher  grade  of 
wheat  than  any  of  its  predecessors.  The  stalk  sprouts 
from  the  ground,  matures,  stores  all  its  gain  of 
growth  within  the  seed  and  perishes.  But  from  the 
seed  springs  its  reincarnated  form,  to  repeat  the 
process  that  changes  poor  to  good,  good  to  better  and' 
better  into  best.  And  thus  it  is  with  the  reincarnat- 
ing soul.  As  the  almost  worthless  grain  through 
many  seasons  is  slowly  changed  to  perfect  worth,  the 
soul  is  by  that  same  law  of  evolution  slowly  changed 
through  many  incarnations  from  the  chaos  of  savag'e 
instincts  to  the  law  and  order  of  the  moral  world. 
Each  incarnation  yields  some  improvement.  As  the 
seed  sprouts  within  the  darkness  of  the  soil  and,  per- 
ishing  there,    attains    its   full    results    in    the    higher 


146  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

realm  of  sun  and  air,  drawing  from  the  soil  that  which, 
stored  within  the  grain,  gives  power  to  reproduce  its 
better  self,  so  the  soul  strikes  anchorage  in  the  lower 
planes  and  draws  from  its  varied  experiences  that 
which,  transmuted  after  the  body's  death,  gives  the 
power  to   return   with  greater  life. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  find  some  explana- 
tion of  the  mental  and  moral  inequalities  that  exist 
at  birth.  In  the  earlier  days  of  the  study  of  evolu- 
tion it  was  usually  asserted  that  the  human  being  in- 
herits his  mentality  and  morality  from  his  parents. 
But  even  if  that  were  true  the  injustice  of  one  being 
born  a  genius  and  another  a  fool  would  remain.  It 
is  the  fact  of  inequality  that  constitutes  the  injustice, 
and  it  is  of  no  importance  whether  it  comes  about 
through  heredity  or  otherwise.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact  heredity  is  confined  to  the  physical  side  of  exist- 
ence. As  more  and  more  is  learned  by  observation 
the  old  theory  of  mental  and  moral  heredity  has  lost 
ground  until  it  can  be  said  that  it  now  has  no  recog- 
nition in  the  scientific  world.  Nobody  is  better  quali- 
fied to  speak  upon  the  subject  than  those  with  prac- 
tical experience.  Dr.  A.  Ritter,  of  the  Stanford  Uni- 
versity Children's  Clinic,  that  has  large  numbers  of 
defective  children  in  charge,  treating  no  less  than 
sixteen  hundred  in  a  single  year,  says : 

"As  to  the  definite  causes  of  the  prevalence  of  de- 
fective types,  I  cannot  speak  with  finality  or  assur- 
ance. I  do  not  agree  with  social  or  educational  doc- 
trinaires who  assign  the  causes  definitely  to  liquor, 
poverty,  infectious  diseases,  or  other  social  or  moral 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  147 

shortcomings.  The  greatest  minds  of  the  world  are 
hesitant  in  theorizing  about  this.  There  are  a  com- 
plex of  causes  which  explain  many  of  these  cases,  but 
no  generalization  fits  absolutely.  We  may  find  a 
case  which  is  not  traceable  to  any  of  these  conditions 
— a  case  in  which  the  antecedents  would  promise  a 
perfectly  normal  child,  and  yet  we  are  confronted  with 
a  defective  child.  On  the  other  hand,  bright,  normal 
children,  even  children  of  superior  intelligence  some- 
times spring  from  such  conditions."* 

A  little  reasoning  about  the  facts  concerning  both 
genius  and  idiocy  will  make  it  clear  that  neither  is 
inherited.  If  it  were  true  that  genius  is  inherited 
society  would  present  a  different  appearance.  There 
would  be  famous  families  of  geniuses  living  in  the 
world,  in  music,  in  poetry,  in  warfare,  in  invention, 
in  art,  if  genius  were  inherited.  The  fact  is  that  it  is 
difficult  to  find  even  two  geniuses  in  any  family.  The 
Caesars,  Napoleons,  Edisons,  Lincolns,  Wagners, 
Shakespeares,  stand  alone  with  neither  great  ances- 
tors nor  great  descendants.  We  search  in  vain  for 
great  ancestors  for  such  men;  but  if  the  theory  of 
mental  heredity  were  sound  we  should  know  their  an- 
cestors for  precisely  the  same  reason  that  we  know 
them. 

Heredity,  then,  does  not  explain  whence  genius 
comes ;  and  if  anybody  had  really  traced  genius  from 
father,  or  grandfather,  to  son  or  grandson,  we  should 
still  have  no  explanation  of  what  genius  is.    We  could 

*Interview  in  San  Francisco  Examiner,  March  5,  1916. 


148  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

then  only  regard  it  as  the  result  of  some  strange 
chance;  yet  the  scientist  knows  that  laws  of  nature 
contain  no  such  element.  But  the  only  reason  why 
genius  appears  so  incomprehensible  is  because  we 
have  not  looked  at  it  in  the  light  of  nature's  truth. 
We  have  erroneously  assumed  that  this  is  the  only 
life  we  live  on  the  physical  plane,  and  therefore  the 
time  is  too  short  for  the  evolution  of  genius.  A  man 
can  become  an  expert  in  one  lifetime  but  not  a 
genius.  But  if  we  give  him  many  incarnations  to  de- 
velop along  certain  lines  he  can  become  a  genius  of 
a  given  type.  The  soul  that  works  strenuously  at 
building  up  a  certain  faculty  through  many  incarna- 
tions naturally  develops  qualities  in  the  causal  body 
that  shine  out  brilliantly  upon  its  return  to  a  physical 
body  and  we  have  the  genius.  We  evolve  our  men- 
tality and  morality,  and  there  could  be  no  justice  in 
life  if  it  were  otherwise. 

There  is  no  element  of  chance  in  getting  a  new 
physical  body  in  the  next  incarnation.  The  body  is 
the  material  expression  of  the  self.  It  is  as  much  the 
product  of  the  self  as  the  rose  is  of  the  bush,  the 
apple  of  the  tree,  or  the  tulip  of  the  bulb.  The 
musician  can  no  more  get  a  body  suitable  to  the  black- 
smith than  the  rose  bush  can  produce  an  apple.  We 
do  not  get  bodies  by  lottery,  like  destitute  people 
drawing  clothing  by  numbers  which  might  result  in 
grotesque  misfits.  We  do  not  get  bodies  at  all,  we 
evolve  them,  and  in  each  incarnation  the  new  body 
expresses  all  the  soul  has  come  to  be  up  to  that  point 
in  its  evolution.     Such  a  view  of  life  has  a  basis  of 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  149 

absolute  justice.  Every  soul  gets  exactly  what  it  has 
earned. 

The  common  belief  in  Occidental  civilization  is 
that  we  live  here  for  only  sixty  or  seventy  years  and 
that  then,  when  we  die,  we  pass  on  to  live  eternally 
somewhere  else,  and  that  the  whole  of  eternity, 
whether  it  is  filled  with  pleasure  or  is  horrible  with 
pain,  is  made  to  depend  on  how  we  spent  those  few 
years  of  the  physical  life !  Such  a  fate  would  be  un- 
fair and  unjust.  If  a  schoolboy  is  incorrigible  for  a 
term  it  would  not  be  fair  to  condemn  him  to  lose  all 
opportunity  of  getting  an  education.  We  would  give 
him  another  chance  at  the  following  term. 

A  little  incident  of  disobedience  from  home  life 
will  illustrate  the  point  involved.  A  quinine  capsule 
was  lying  on  the  table.  A  three-year-old  boy  reached 
for  it.  His  mother  called  across  the  room,  "Don't 
eat  that,  dearie,  it  isn't  candy."  But  in  a  spirit  of 
reckless  mischief  he  hurried  it  into  his  mouth  and 
quickly  chewed  it  up !  It  was  a  very  disagreeable  but 
salutary  lesson  for  the  little  fellow.  It  is  an  example 
of  nature's  methods.  She  is  always  consistent,  and 
has  a  balanced  relationship  between  cause  and  effect. 
But  suppose  in  this  case  we  throw  her  consistency 
aside  as  those  who  believe  that  eternal  results  will 
follow  temporal  effects  are  obliged  to  do.  An  ordi- 
nary lifetime  compared  to  eternity  is  somewhat  like 
that  instant  of  disobedience  compared  to  eighty  years, 
but  the  illustration  is  not  adequate  because  eternity 
never  ends.  As  nearly  as  the  principle  can  be  applied 
it  would  be  by  saying  to  the  child,  "Because  you  were 


150  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

disobedient  for  a  second  of  time  you  shall  taste  quinine 
for  eighty  years!"  If  that  punishment  is  injustice 
what  must  we  call  the  infliction  of  an  eternity  of  pain 
as  the  result  of  the  errors  committed  in  a  lifetime? 

Any  hypothesis  of  existence  that  does  not  take 
into  consideration  the  welfare  of  humanity  is  a  false 
hypothesis.  What  plan  can  better  serve  the  common 
welfare  than  a  chance  to  redeem  a  failure?  When  a 
prisoner  is  condemned  for  a  crime  we  do  not  deprive 
him  of  opportunities.  We  give  him  every  possible 
chance  to  improve  his  character.  God  cannot  be  less 
just  or  merciful  than  man.  Rebirth  is  a  new  chance. 
Every  incarnation  is  another  opportunity. 

If  the  popular  idea  of  an  eternal  heaven  and  hell 
is  sound,  and  there  be  few  who  find  the  "narrow  way," 
the  time  will  come  when  the  majority  of  the  race  will 
have  used  their  one  opportunity  of  a  brief  lifetime, 
and  have  failed.  If  that  were  really  true,  it  is  easy 
to  imagine  what  they  would  do  with  another  oppor- 
tunity if  they  had  it!  How  long  should  opportunity 
be  given?  Just  as  long  as  it  will  be  used,  and  to 
deprive  anybody  of  it  when  he  is  eager  to  redeem 
past  errors  is  to  ignore  the  principles  of  human  wel- 
fare. Therefore  such  a  plan  cannot  be  the  true  one. 
John   J.   Ingalls   personified   opportunity   and   wrote: 

Master  of  human  destinies  am  I! 

Fame,  Love  and  Fortune  on  my  footsteps  wait; 

Cities  and  fields  I  walk;  I  penetrate 
Deserts  and  seas  remote,  and  passing  by 

Hovel  and  mart  and  palace,  soon  or  late 

I  knock  unbidden  once  at  every  gate. 
If  sleeping,  awake;   if  feasting,  rise  before 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  151 


I  turn  away.     It  is  the  hour  of  fate, 

And  they  who  follow  me  reach  every  state 
Mortals  desire,  and  conquer  every  foe 

Save  Death;  but  those  who  doubt  or  hesitate, 
Condemned  to   failure,   penury   and   woe, 

Seek  me  in  vain  and  uselessly  implore; 

I  answer  not  and  I  return  no  more. 


That  is  true  enough  from  one  viewpoint  and  profit- 
ably emphasizes  the  importance  of  promptly  acting 
when  the  time  for  action  arrives.  But  there  is  an- 
other truth  to  be  expressed  on  the  subject  and  it  is 
well  done  by  Walter  Malone,  who  says : 

They  do  me  wrong  who  say  I  come  no  more, 

When  once  I  knock  and  fail  to  find  you  in; 
For  every  day  I  stand  outside  your  door, 

And  bid  you  awake  and  rise  to  fight  and  win. 
Wail  not  for  precious  chances  passed  away; 

Weep  not  for  golden  ages  on  the  wane; 
Each  night  I  burn  the  records  of  the  day, 

At  sunrise  every  soul  is  born  again. 
Laugh  like  a  boy  at  splendors  that  are  sped; 

To  vanished  joys  be  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb; 
My  judgments  seal  the  dead  past  with  its  dead, 

But  never  bind  a  moment  yet  to  come. 
Though  deep  in  mire,  wring  not  your  hands  and  weep, 
I  lend  my  arm  to  all  who  say,  "I  can." 

What  a  magnificent  view  of  human  evolution! 
No  ultimate  failure  possible  because  there  is  always 
another  chance.  The  failure  of  one  incarnation  made 
good  by  the  sincere  efforts  of  the  next.  All  the  faults 
and  frailties — the  shadow  blots  of  the  past — vanish- 
ing in  the  light  of  a  higher  wisdom  that  has  been 
won.     No  endless  hell,  no  eternal  torment;  not  even 


152 ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

the  ghosts  of  vanished  chances  to  haunt  the  mind;  but 
only  the  insistent  voice  of  immortal  Opportunity,  urg- 
ing us  to  wake  and  rise  to  strive  and  win! 


CHAPTER  XL 
REBIRTH:  ITS  NECESSITY 

There  are  apparently  but  three  ways  in  which  any- 
body has  attempted  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  race.  If 
two  of  these  are  shown  to  be  impossible  we  have  no 
course  open  to  us  but  to  accept  the  one  which  remains. 
One  of  the  three  theories  is  that  of  the  materialist.  An- 
other is  the  common  belief  that  God  created  an  original 
human  pair  and  continues  to  create  souls  for  babies. 
The  third  hypothesis  is  that  of  the  evolution  of  the  soul. 

The  materialist's  position  seems  to  be,  briefly,  that 
the  forces  of  nature,  with  no  directive  intelligence,  are 
sufficient  to  account  for  man  as  we  see  him ;  that  a  con- 
tinuing consciousness  in  the  human  being  is  a  delusion; 
that  immortality  is  a  vain  dream  and  that  humanity  has 
neither  a  past  nor  a  future.  Yet  the  very  facts  of  science 
to  which  the  materialist  appeals  contradict  such  con- 
clusions. 

This  materialistic  belief  regards  the  human  body  as 
a  self-sufficient  machine  whose  brain  generates  thought. 
But  the  savage  has  a  completely  evolved  physical  body 
with  eyes,  ears  and  other  organs  like  our  own.  His 
brain  under  the  microscope  shows  no  trace  of  difference 
in  its  material  constitution  from  the  brain  of  civilized 

153 


154  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

man.  Indeed,  his  physical  body  is  not  only  as  complete 
a  machine  as  ours  but  is  likely  to  be  materially  sounder. 
Why,  then,  if  the  brain  produces  thought,  does  not  this 
savage  produce  the  thoughts  of  a  philosopher?  If  there 
is  no  directing  soul  back  of  the  brain,  why  the  marvelous 
difference  in  the  product  of  the  two  brains? 

Materialists  go  too  far  in  the  assumption  that  they 
can  explain  the  phenomena  of  life.  They  can  talk  learn- 
edly about  it  but  they  must  stop  short  of  the  source 
of  life.  Everything  about  anatomy  and  physiology  they 
know,  but  the  life  that  flows  through  the  human  machine 
remains  unexplained.  They  can  trace  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  from  the  heart  through  the  arteries,  from  the 
arteries  across  to  the  veins,  from  the  veins  back  to  the 
heart,  but  the  greatest  mind  the  race  has  produced  can- 
not say  what  makes  the  heart  beat.  Life  has  not  been 
explained  and  cannot  be  explained  from  the  materialist's 
viewpoint.  Every  human  being  is  a  miracle.  A  finger- 
nail is  a  mystery  of  evolution.  It  is  formed  from  the 
same  food  that  makes  the  flesh  and  it  will  continue  to 
be  formed  regardless  of  the  variety  or  quality  of  the 
food.  Why  do  certain  particles  become  flesh  or  nails? 
Who  can  draw  the  division  line  between  them?  With 
marvelous  instruments  and  wondrous  skill  science  has 
explored  and  mapped  and  charted  the  "tabernacle  of 
clay,"  but  it  cannot  throw  a  single  ray  of  light  upon  the 
intelligence  that  animates  it. 

Materialism  fails  sadly  enough  in  that  direction,  but 
still  worse  as  a  satisfactory  interpretation  of  the  pano- 
rama of  the  life  about  us.  It  is  a  philosophy  of  the 
gloomiest  fatalism.     It  holds  that  we  simply  chance  to 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  155 

be  that  which  we  are;  that  we  are  what  we  are  merely 
because  of  fortuitous  chemical  and  mechanical  combina- 
tions. Had  the  combinations  chanced  to  be  something 
different  we  should  not  be  in  existence.  Chance  is  the 
king  of  the  materialist's  world. 

According  to  this  theory  all  abilities  are  the  gifts 
of  nature  and  all  lack  of  them  is  the"  blind  award  of 
chance.  No  credit  whatever  is  due  to  anybody  for  what 
he  is,  nor  can  anybody  be  logically  blamed  for  his  de- 
ficiencies. All  are  like  men  who,  with  closed  eyes,  draw 
something  from  a  bag  under  compulsion.  It  is  not  to 
the  credit  of  one  that  he  got  a  prize  nor  to  the  discredit 
of  another  that  he  drew  a  blank.  This  hypothesis  holds 
that  recently  we  were  not  and  that  presently  we  shall 
cease  to  be;  that  we  appear  by  chance,  live  our  brief 
period,  suffer  or  enjoy  as  it  may  happen  and  then  pass 
to  the  oblivion  of  eternal  silence;  that  all  the  thought, 
all  the  toil  and  the  striving,  all  the  effort  and  endurance 
were  for  nothing,  and  accomplished  nothing.  Such  a 
philosophy  will  not  long  survive  the  progress  of  our 
age.  It  lacks  the  balance  of  nature's  principle  of  con- 
servation. It  lacks  the  completeness  of  universal  law. 
It  lacks  the  element  of  justice  that  is  enthroned  in  every 
human  consciousness  and  without  which  life  would  be 
a  meaningless  mockery  and  the  world  a  chaos  of  despair. 
But  the  materialist's  philosophy  has  no  monopoly  of 
bad  points  or  undesirable  beliefs.  The  old  popular  idea 
of  a  mechanical  creation  is  equally  at  war  with  both 
fact  and  reason.  That  belief  is  that  God  created  the 
world  as  men  build  houses,  and  added  the  human  beings 
as  men  furnish  their  houses  when  built.    It  is  the  belief 


156  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

that  He  is  still  making  souls  as  fast  as  bodies  are  being 
born  in  the  world,  that  these  souls  begin  their  existence 
at  birth,  live  here  but  one  life  and  then  pass  on  into 
either  endless  bliss  or  eternal  pain. 

This  idea  differs  from  materialism  in  the  matter 
of  a  governing  intelligence  and  on  immortality  but  it  is 
remarkably  like  it  in  other  ways.  Like  materialism  it  is 
fatalistic  because  it  makes  man  the  helpless  subject  of 
resistless  power.  It  merely  puts  an  intelligent  force  as 
first  cause  where  the  materialist  postulates  blind  force. 

The  materialist  says  that  all  human  characteristics 
are  the  gift  of  nature  while  according  to  the  popular 
belief  they  are  the  gifts  of  God.  In  either  case  one 
class  of  human  beings  gets  abilities  that  they  have  not 
earned  and  others  get  defects  that  they  do  not  deserve. 
The  intellectual  man  is  favored  without  reason  and  the 
fool  is  handicapped  without  mercy.  Some  come  into  the 
world  with  salvation  assured  by  being  well  born  while 
others  are  foredoomed  to  failure.  Predestination  goes 
logically  with  such  ideas. 

Happily  the  world  has  long  been  growing  away  from 
the  once  wide-spread  belief  in  predestination  because  it 
is  too  shocking  to  the  modern  sense  of  justice.  But  is 
the  world  at  the  same  time  catching  the  point  that  if 
there  is  but  one  life  on  earth  and  the  soul  is  created  at 
birth,  then  the  very  essence  of  predestination  remains, 
because  some  are  created  with  the  wisdom  to  attain 
salvation  and  others  are  created  without  it  ? 

If  the  soul  has  no  pre-existence  it  can  have  no  re- 
sponsibility at  the  time  of  birth.  Neither  can  it  have  any 
merit.    One  is  born  with  a  sound  mind  and  moral  insight. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  157 


These  qualities  may  lead  to  salvation  but  the  man  has 
done  nothing  to  earn  them.  Another  is  born  with  cruel 
and  vicious  tendencies  and  poor  intellect.  He  may  there- 
fore miss  salvation,  but  if  he  had  no  pre-existence  he 
can  have  done  nothing  to  deserve  such  a  start  in  life. 
If  we  are  really  here  for  the  first  time  then  justice  can 
be  done  only  by  giving  us  equal  equipment  at  the  start 
and  equal  opportunities  afterward. 

Think  for  a  moment  of  the  sweeping  difference  be- 
tween human  beings  at  birth.  There  is  every  degree  of 
vice  and  virtue  from  the  savage  to  the  saint  and  every 
mental  variation  from  the  fool  to  the  philosopher.  If 
God  really  creates  the  soul  at  birth,  then  one  is  created 
wise  and  kind  though  he  did  nothing  to  earn  it.  Another 
is  created  vicious  and  depraved.  He  did  nothing  to  de- 
serve it.  One  is  showered  with  natural  gifts  to  which 
he  is  not  justly  entitled.  Another  is  blighted  with  a 
stupidity  he  did  nothing  to  incur;  and  we  are  asked  to 
believe  that  God  made  them  thus!  Such  a  belief  is 
contrary  to  reason  and  to  justice. 

It  is  easy  to  see  why,  in  this  old  view  of  the  relation- 
ship between  God  and  man,  salvation  was  to  be  by 
faith.  It  was  impossible  for  a  person  to  be  saved  by 
his  merit  because,  if  his  qualities  were  given  to  him  by 
God  at  birth,  he  had  no  merit.  His  very  ability  to 
comprehend  spiritual  truth  and  his  moral  strength  to 
resist  temptation,  were  conferred  upon  him,  not  earned 
by  him.  If  this  popular  view  is  sound,  human  beings 
should  be  neither  praised  nor  censured.  They  are  simply 
human  automata  operated  by  such  degree  of  mental  and 
moral  ability  as  God  chose  to  assign  to  them.     If  this 


158  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

be  true,  genius  should  have  no  credit  for  its  accom- 
plishments, indolence  no  frown  of  disapproval,  cowardice 
no  lash  of  condemnation,  tolerance  no  meed  of  praise, 
cruelty  no  rebuke,  virtue  no  applause  and  heroism  no 
fame  for  its  selfless  sacrifice.  And  yet  this  absurd 
and  illogical  belief  lingers  in  the  minds  of  millions  of 
people.  It  is  believed  because  it  always  has  been  be- 
lieved. 

If  materialism  is  an  impossible  philosophy,  ithen 
the  popular  belief  that  the  soul  is  created  at  birth  is  also 
impossible.  It  is  a  theory  that  encumbers  its  belief 
in  immortality  with  conditions  that  destroy  justice  and 
defy  logic.  That  old  form  of  belief  has  outlived  its 
day.  It  was  possible  at  any  time  only  because  there 
was  too  little  information  and,  like  the  old  belief  that 
the  world  was  flat,  it  must  yield  place  to  the  newer 
knowledge.  The  truth  of  evolution  is  the  stanchest 
friend  of  religion.  It  is  the  foundation  on  which  may  be 
built  a  scientific  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being,  a  rational 
faith  in  immortality  and  a  brotherhood  of  man  that 
has  a  basis  in  nature  itself.  The  very  idea  that  was 
hastily  thought  to  be  destructive  of  a  belief  in  God  and 
heaven  and  immortality  is  rapidly  becoming  the  most 
important  witness  to  the  truth  of  them  all.  While  it  is 
true  that  in  the  earliest  days  of  evolution  the  most 
eminent  scientists  were  agnostic,  it  is  equally  true  that 
today  the  most  eminent  scientists  of  the  world  believe 
in  the  existence  of  the  soul,  and  in  its  immortality,  and 
base  that  belief  upon  scientific  grounds. 

What  is  the  essence  of  the  facts  of  evolution  and 
how  does  it  give  evidence  against  materialism  and  for 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  159 

immortality  ?  Evolution  is  an  orderly  unfolding  from  the 
single  to  the  diversified,  from  the  simple  to  the  complex, 
in  which  process  life  evolves  by  passing  from  lower  to 
higher  forms  and  storing  within  itself  the  gist  of  the 
experiences  gained  in  each. 

One  of  the  vital  facts  that  evolution  establishes  is 
that  slow  building  is  the  order  of  creation.  The  horse 
is  an  example.  He  is  traced  backward  with  certainty 
to  a  small  creature  that  resembles  him  very  little  indeed. 
Ages  were  required  to  evolve  the  horse  into  his  present 
intelligence  and  utility.  Another  profoundly  important 
fact  in  evolution  is  the  continuity  of  life  from  body  to 
body.  The  butterfly  is  frequently  used  as  an  illustration, 
but  the  principle  holds  with  all  the  higher  order  of 
insects  like  ants,  flies  and  bees.  In  the  metamorphosis 
of  the  caterpillar  we  have  a  phenomenon  so  common 
that  most  people  have  personally  observed  it.  Watch,  in 
imagination,  its  transformation  that  contradicts  material- 
istic philosophy.  The  worm  is  a  physical  body  occupied 
by  an  evolving  life  or  intelligence.  Its  physical  body 
perishes  and  becomes  part  of  the  dust  of  the  street. 
The  life  enters  the  grave  of  the  chrysalis.  The  scientist 
takes  that  chrysalis,  packs  it  in  an  ice  house  and  leaves 
it  frozen  for  a  number  of  years.  Now  a  mere  frost 
will  kill  either  caterpillar  or  butterfly,  but  when  the 
chrysalis  is  removed  from  the  ice  and  brought  into  a 
higher  temperature  the  triumphant  life  emerges  in  the 
form  of  the  butterfly.  This  phenomenon  proves  that 
life  does  survive  the  loss  of  the  body.  The  body  of  the 
caterpillar  is  dead  and  has  turned  to  dust  years  ago,  but 
the  caterpillar  that  lived  in  it  is  not  dead.     It  now  lives 


160  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

again  in  the  physical  world  in  a  physical  body  of  a 
higher  type. 

Here,  in  an  order  of  existence  almost  infinitely  below 
man,  we  have  an  individual  life  existing  in  a  physical 
form,  passing  from  it  and,  after  a  number  of  years, 
taking  possession  of  another  form  and  living  in  that. 
Who  can  admit  such  continuity  of  life  for  the  insect  and 
deny  it  for  man  ?  Can  there  be  a  deathless  something  in 
a  worm  and  not  in  a  human  being?  Even  without  the 
mass  of  physical  evidence  that  exists  upon  the  subject  the 
logic  of  nature  would  lead  us  to  confident  conclusions. 
The  knowledge  of  evolution  which  science  has  so  far 
accumulated  leads  to  four  natural  inferences.  One  is 
that  man  is  immortal.  Another  is  that  he  has,  like  all 
creatures,  slowly  evolved  to  what  he  now  is.  A  third  is 
that  both  life,  and  the  forms  it  uses,  are  evolving  together, 
and  the  fourth  is  that  lower  orders  evolve  into  higher 
and  continually  higher  ones.  The  human  soul  evolves 
from  the  savage  to  the  saint — from  animal  instincts 
to  the  self-sacrifice  of  martyrs  and  heroes.  We  cannot 
escape  the  conclusion  that  the  race  has  evolved,  is 
evolving  and  will  continue  to  evolve  until  mental  and 
moral  perfection  has  been  attained. 

If  neither  the  theory  of  the  materialist  nor  the  popu- 
lar notion  that  the  soul  is  created  at  birth  is  satisfactory, 
we  have  only  reincarnation  left  as  a  working  hypothesis ; 
and  if  we  accept  the  evolution  of  the  soul  as  a  natural 
truth,  then  reincarnation  becomes  a  necessity  in  ex- 
plaining the  known  facts  of  life. 

But  there  are  some  students  of  life  who  appear  to 
refuse   the   hypothesis   of   reincarnation   while   wishing 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  161 


to  accept  the  idea  of  the  evolution  of  the  soul.  But 
how  would  that  be  possible?  If  the  soul  is  evolving  it 
is  under  the  necessity  of  developing  by  the  laws  of 
growth.    They  were  discussed  in  Chapter  IX. 

Those  who  desire  to  put  their  ideas  about  the  soul 
and  its  immortality  into  harmony  with  the  facts  of 
evolution  sometimes  ask  why  it  would  not  be  possible 
for  the  soul  to  leave  the  material  plane  forever  at  the 
death  of  the  physical  body  and  then  pursue  its  evolution 
on  higher  planes.  In  the  vast  universe  there  must  be 
opportunity  for  all  possible  development,  it  is  argued. 

But  why  go  on  into  other  regions  when  the  lessons 
here  have  not  been  learned?  That  would  be  a  violation 
of  nature's  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  The 
average  human  being  is  in  the  elementary  grades,  with 
scores  of  incarnations  ahead  of  him  before  he  will'  be 
in  a  position  even  to  take  advantage  of  his  opportunities 
and  thus  make  fairly  rapid  progress.  To  talk  of  going 
on  to  higher  planes  for  further  evolution  is  like  proposing 
that  a  child  shall  leave  the  kindergarten  and  enter  the 
university. 

We  are  evolving  along  two  lines,  the  mental  and 
moral,  and  a  little  consideration  of  the  matter  will  make 
clear  two  important  points — that  we  have  much  to  learn 
and  that  the  physical  plane  is  wonderfully  arranged  for 
our  instruction.  We  have  conditions  here  for  developing 
mentality  that  do  not  exist  on  higher  planes.  The  ab- 
solute necessity  of  procuring  food  is  an  example.  Death 
is  the  penalty  for  failure  to  obtain  it.  Hunger  was  the 
earliest  spur  to  action  at  the  lowest  level  of  evolution 
and  even  now  at  our  high  point  of  attainment  it  is  one 


162  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

of  the  chief  factors  of  racial  activity.  In  providing 
the  necessities  of  life  and  in  gratifying  our  multitude 
of  desires  mentality  is  developed.  Business  and  profes- 
sional life  rests  upon  these  physical  plane  necessities  and, 
engaged  in  solving  the  problems  of  civilization,  the  race 
evolves  intellect.  Such  problems  do  not,  of  course, 
exist  on  higher  planes. 

While  the  mentality  is  thus  being  pushed  along  in 
evolution  by  our  material  necessities,  the  heart  qualities 
are  developed  by  the  family  ties  in  a  way  that  could  not 
be  done  elsewhere.  In  the  nature  of  things  the  entrance 
of  the  soul  to  the  physical  plane  is  attended  with  helpless- 
ness. From  the  beginning  it  must  have  material  neces- 
sities or  die,  and  yet  it  can  do  nothing  in  its  new  infant 
body.  Again,  as  a  rule,  long  before  it  leaves  the  physical 
plane  old  age  has  once  more  rendered  it  helpless.  Thus 
every  human  being  must  depend  on  the  assistance  of 
others  at  two  critical  periods  of  each  incarnation.  The 
help  it  receives,  in  infancy  and  old  age,  it  pays  back 
to  the  race,  in  the  care  of  both  the  helpless  young  and 
the  helpless  old,  when  it  is  in  the  vigor  of  mature  physi- 
cal life.  It  is  obvious  that  such  experience  develops 
the  qualities  of  sympathy  and  compassion  as  no  phase 
of  business  life  could.  The  relationship  of  parent  and 
child,  husband  and  wife,  evolves  the  heart  qualities  in  a 
way  that  would  be  impossible  in  the  totally  different 
environment  of  higher  planes.  Naturally  enough,  each 
plane  has  a  specific  work  to  do  in  the  soul's  evolution. 
We  can  no  more  learn  in  the  highest  planes  the  lessons 
the  material  world  is  designed  to  teach  us  than  a  pupil 
can  acquire  a  knowledge  of  mathematics  from  his  lessons 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  163 


in  geography.  Hence  the  necessity  for  a  periodical  re- 
turn to  this  life  until  its  experiences  have  developed  in 
us  the  qualities  we  lack. 

Not  only  has  each  plane  its  special  adaptability  to 
particular  needs  of  the  soul  in  its  evolution,  but  the 
two  kinds  of  physical  bodies — masculine  and  feminine — 
through  which  the  soul  functions,  afford  special  ad- 
vantages for  acquiring  the  lessons  of  life.  The  soul 
on  its  home  plane  is,  of  course,  sexless.  Sex,  as  we 
know  it,  is  a  differentiation  arising  from  the  soul's  ex- 
pression on  lower  planes.  All  characteristics  of  the  soul 
itself,  like  intelligence,  love,  or  devotion,  are  common 
to  both  sexes. 

The  ego  functioning  through  the  masculine  body  has 
the  opportunity  of  certain  experiences  that  would  be 
impossible  in  the  feminine  body,  while,  of  course,  the 
feminine  form  enables  the  ego  to  get  experience  that 
could  not  be  known  through  the  masculine  body.  A 
consideration  of  the  widely  different  experiences  of 
fathers  and  mothers,  Sons  and  daughters,  will  show  how 
true  this  is.  The  lessons  obtained  in  the  masculine 
body  are  largely  those  of  the  head  while  in  the  feminine 
form  they  are  lessons  of  the  heart. 

When  the  ego  puts  forth  its  energies  and  begins 
descent  into  lower  planes  for  another  incarnation  it  is 
apparently  beginning  a  cycle  of  experience  in  which 
either  mentality  or  spirituality  shall  be  the  dominant 
note  for  that  incarnation,  and  probably  for  several  others. 
If  it  is  to  evolve  for  the  time  being  through  those  experi- 
ences related  to  objective  activity,  with  intellect  as  the 


164  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

guiding  factor,  the  masculine  body  can  best  serve  the 
purpose.  But  if  the  dominant  note  is  to  be  spirituality, 
rather  than  mentality  and  the  soul  is,  for  the  time,  mov- 
ing along  the  line  of  the  heart  side — the  subjective,  the 
intuitive — then  the  feminine  body  is  the  better  vehicle 
in  which  such  experience  can  be  obtained.  But  to  say 
that  mentality  is  the  dominant  factor  of  masculine  in- 
carnation does  not  at  all  mean  that  men  have  a  monopoly 
of  the  reasoning  faculty.  Nor  does  the  fact  that  other 
souls  are  being  expressed  through  the  feminine  body  mean 
that  they  have  a  fundamental  spiritual  advantage.  Some 
women  are  better  reasoners  than  some  men,  while  some 
men  are  more  spiritual  than  some  women.  What  it 
does  mean  is  that  a  certain  ego  can  express  intellect 
better  through  a  masculine  body  and  intuition  better 
through  a  feminine  body. 

Our  ordinary  language  confirms  the  truth  of  the 
statement  that  men  normally  express  more  the  head 
qualities  and  women  more  the  heart  qualities.  We 
speak  of  men  as  being  reasoners  and  of  women  as  being 
intuitional  and  depending  upon  their  impressions.  The 
soul  in  the  masculine  body  is  for  the  time  being  getting 
experiences  of  the  outer,  objective  activities.  He  is  the 
home  builder  and  protector,  the  bread  winner,  the  battle 
fighter.  The  soul  in  the  feminine  body  is,  for  the  time, 
getting  experience  along  the  line  of  the  inner,  subjective 
life.  She  is  the  wife  and  mother,  and  her  lessons  are 
of  the  heart  rather  than  the  head. 

As  we  study  nature  we  are  more  and  more  impressed 
with  her  wonderful  mechanism  for  the  evolution  of  the 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  165 

soul.  It  soon  becomes  clear  to  the  student  that  every  in- 
dividual is,  in  each  incarnation,  thrown  into  precisely  the 
circumstances  required  for  the  greatest  possible  progress 
of  that  particular  ego.  If  the  qualities  of  initiative  and 
courage,  for  example,  are  to  be  developed,  the  masculine 
body  admirably  serves  the  purpose,  while  if  sympathy 
and  compassion  need  stimulation  the  feminine  form  is 
wonderfully  effective  for  that  kind  of  progress.  It  re- 
quires little  reasoning  to  see  that  the  soul  would  not 
continue  to  incarnate  in  one  sex  indefinitely.  It  must 
develop  all  its  inner  qualities.  Both  intellect  and  com- 
passion must  reach  perfect  expression.  Such  a  con- 
summation can,  of  course,  be  best  attained  by  alternating 
sex  experiences.  But  here  again  there  is  wide  latitude 
in  the  operation  of  the  law.  The  rule  seems  to  be  that 
ordinarily  there  are  not  less  than  three  nor  more  than 
seven  successive  incarnations  in  one  sex,  and  then  the 
ego  begins  to  express  itself  through  a  body  of  the  other 
sex.  By  that  rule  it  would  commonly  be  for  a  period 
of  from  a  few  hundred  years  to  some  thousands  of 
years,  that  the  ego  expresses  itself  through  one  sex  before 
it  changes  to  the  other.  One  case  is  mentioned  by  the 
occult  investigators  in  which  for  about  thirty  thousand 
years  a  certain  ego  had  expressed  itself  only  through  the 
masculine  form.  At  least  no  trace  of  a  feminine  incar- 
nation could  be  found  during  that  time. 

The  necessity  for  rebirth  becomes  clearer  and  clearer 
as  we  study  the  nature  of  the  human  being  and  the 
inherent  divine  qualities  he  is  unfolding.  Reincarnation 
is  the  method  of  evolution  at  the  human  level.  Only  by 
physical  plane  experience  can  man's  potential  powers  be 


166  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

aroused  and  so  tremendous  is  the  evolutionary  work  to 
be  done  that  only  a  mere  fragment  of  it  can  be  accom- 
plished in  an  ordinary  lifetime.  The  absolute  necessity 
of  many  rebirths  is  obvious. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHY  WE  DO  NOT  REMEMBER 

The  loss  of  memory  between  incarnations  and  the 
failure  to  now  recall  any  of  our  experiences  previous 
to  the  present  physical  plane  life  has  sometimes  been 
cited  as  a  negative  kind  of  evidence  against  the  hy- 
pothesis of  rebirth.  The  point  could  not  be  made, 
however,  by  one  who  has  studied  the  matter  because 
close  scrutiny  will  show  that  the  loss  of  memory  is  a 
necessary  part  of  reincarnation.  The  fact  that  we  do 
not  remember  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  evolution.  Indeed,  the  close  student  of  the 
subject  would  be  very  much  surprised  if  we  could 
normally  remember,  because  he  does  not  get  far  until 
he  sees,  not  only  why  we  do  not  remember  past  in- 
carnations but  why  we  should  not  remember  them. 

The  very  nature  of  the  evolutionary  work  to  be 
done  by  reincarnation  necessitates  a  sacrifice  of 
memory.  One  useful  purpose  of  the  confinement  of 
consciousness  in  matter,  through  the  use  of  a  physical 
body,  is  that  it  narrows  the  scope  of  consciousness 
and  thereby  increases  its  efficiency.  The  conscious- 
ness of  the  ego  sweeps  over  a  vast  range,  forward  and 
backward,   including  all   past   incarnations.     But   the 

167 


168  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

limitation  of  matter  which  compels  consciousness  to 
be  expressed  through  a  physical  body,  focuses  the 
attention  on  the  evolutionary  work  immediately  in 
hand.  The  brain  becomes  the  instrument  of  con- 
sciousness but  also,  fortunately,  the  limitation  of  con- 
sciousness. If  there  were  not  loss  of  memory  our 
minds  would  now  range  over  the  adventures  of  thou- 
sands of  years  in  the  past.  It  would  encompass  a 
vast  drama  with  countless  loves  and  hates,  of  many 
lives  filled  with  pathos  and  tragedy.  To  thus  dis- 
tract the  mind  from  the  present  life  would  retard  our 
progress.  When  one  is  alone  and  in  a  secluded  place 
one  can  think  better  and  accomplish  more  than  when 
in  the  midst  of  turbulent  scenes  and  throngs  of  peo- 
ple. When  there  is  less  to  think  about  the  thinking 
is  more  effective.  It  is  necessary  to  restrict  the  con- 
sciousness and  limit  the  mind  to  the  present  life  in 
order  to  get  the  most  satisfactory  results.  The  same 
truth  is  embodied  in  that  old  saying  that  whoever  is 
jack  of  all  trades  is  master  of  none.  Concentration 
alone  can  produce  satisfactory  results.  If  we  would 
master  the  lessons  of  this  life  we  must  not  take  other 
lives  within  the  field  of  consciousness.  The  very 
process  of  reincarnation  is  a  coming  out  of  the  gen- 
eral into  the  particular,  with  the  consequent  narrow- 
ing of  consciousness. 

We  should  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  our  true  and 
permanent  life  is  in  the  causal  body,  and  on  the  mental 
plane,  and  that  there,  alone,  is  unbroken  memory  pos- 
sible. The  descent  into  matter  in  each  incarnation  is 
also  beyond  reach  of  the  brain  memory,  of  course. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 169 

Getting  new  bodies  is  the  working  out  of  natural  law 
even  as  instinct  works  in  animals.  The  whole  ani- 
mal kingdom,  lacking  the  reasoning  power  of  man, 
nevertheless  adapts  means  to  ends  with  unerring  ac- 
curacy and  with  a  depth  of  wisdom  that  is  beyond  our 
comprehension.  And  so  is  human  evolution  directed 
by  impelling  forces  that  are  unknown  to  our  waking 
consciousness.  But  our  waking  consciousness  is  only 
a  small  part  of  our  consciousness — that  fragment  of 
it  that  can  be  expressed  through  the  physical  brain. 
The  physical  brain  is  a  limitation  of  consciousness, 
and  therefore  of  memory,  as  certainly  as  a  mountain 
range  is  a  limitation  of  sight  and  prevents  one's  know- 
ing what  lies  beyond  it.  In  higher  realms  we  do  know 
our  wider  life  and  vaster  consciousness  that  includes 
the  memory  of  our  past  incarnations.  But  when  we 
come  downward  into  another  incarnation  it  is  as 
though  we  were  descending  in  a  narrow  vale  within 
mountain  ranges  that  stand  between  us  and  the  wider 
world.  Memory  is  dependent  on  things  not  within 
the  control  of  the  will.  Memory  often  fails  to  estab- 
lish facts  which  we  wish  to  recall.  We  know,  for 
example,  the  name  of  a  certain  person.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  we  know  it  and  yet  it  is  impossible  to  re- 
member it  at  will.  Tomorrow  it  will  flash  upon  us, 
but  we  cannot  remember  it  now,  try  as  we  may.  Now, 
if  memory  fails  to  produce  its  record  even  when  we 
have  a  mental  picture  of  just  how  that  person  looks, 
and  know  just  where  we  have  met  him,  it  is  certainly 
not  remarkable  that  with  no  such  immediate  connec- 
tion with  our  last  incarnation  we  fail  to  recall  it.     It 


170  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

was  perhaps  in  another  part  of  the  world,  and  in  an- 
other civilization,  and  is  separated  from  us  by  the 
long  interval  between  incarnations.  Of  course 
memory  likewise  fails  to  produce  that  record.  But 
all  of  our  past  experiences  are  within  the  soul,  just 
as  the  records  of  all  of  the  experiences  of  this  life  are 
in  the  mind  whether  we  can  connect  them  with  the 
present  moment  or  not. 

But  it  may  be  asked  why  it  is  that,  if  we  do  not 
remember  events  that  have  occurred  in  past  lives  and 
people  we  have  seen  before,  we  do  not  at  least  now 
have  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  previously  familiar 
to  us.  What  the  soul  gains  from  incarnation  to  in- 
carnation is  not  concrete  facts  but  something  higher 
and  far  more  valuable.  It  gains  the  essence  of  facts 
which  gives  the  understanding  of  their  true  relation- 
ship;  and  this  is  the  thing  we  call  good  judgment  or 
common-sense.  A  man  does  not  succeed  in  business 
because  he  knows  a  lot  of  facts,  but  because  he  knows 
what  to  do  with  the  facts.  An  encyclopedia  is  full 
of  facts  but  it  cannot  run  a  business.  Every  theorist 
and  dreamer  is  loaded  with  facts.  The  successful  man 
is  the  one  with  balance  and  judgment. 

It  might  seem  on  first  thought  that  one  who  has 
been  a  carpenter  in  a  previous  incarnation  should  have 
no  need  to  learn  the  name  and  use  of  a  saw,  or  one 
who  has  been  a  skillful  penman  to  learn  slowly  to 
hold  the  pen  and  fashion  the  letters.  But  we  must 
remember  that  the  old  soul  is  now  breaking  in  a  new 
physical  instrument  with  which  to  express  itself  and 
that  while  it  will  be  able  to  use  all  the  skill  it  has 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  171 

previously  evolved,  its  full  expression  must  await  the 
time  when  the  new  instrument  has  been  brought  into 
responsive  action. 

The  situation  might  be  fairly  illustrated  by  the 
case  of  a  stenographer  who  is  still  using  the  original 
typewriter,  in  some  remote  corner  of  the  earth,  and 
who  has  not  even  seen  or  heard  of  any  of  the  remark- 
able improvements  made  in  such  machines  in  the  last 
thirty  years.  If  his  old  machine  were  suddenly  taken 
from  him  and  a  model  of  the  present  year  were  put  in 
its  place,  it  is  obvious  that  he  could  at  first  make  little 
use  of  it — not  because  he  has  no  knowledge  but  be- 
cause he  must  become  accustomed  to  the  new  machine 
before  he  can  express  himself  through  it.  It  would 
have  mechanism  and  appliances  that  he  could  not 
immediately  manage.  Let  us  imagine  also  that  all  the 
characters  are  in  a  foreign  language  which  must  be 
mastered  before  the  machine  can  be  used.  But  the 
difficulties  are  not  great  enough  yet  for  a  fair  illus- 
tration. We  must  also  suppose  that  it  is  a  living 
thing,  with  moods  and  emotions,  and  that  it  must  pass 
through  stages  of  growth  comparable  to  infancy  and 
youth.  Under  these  handicaps  it  would  be  certain 
that  the  stenographer  would  appear  to  have  very  little 
knowledge  and  to  possess  little  skill.  Yet  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  is  merely  the  conditions  that  temporarily 
prevent  him  from  expressing  his  wisdom  and  skill. 

The  gist  of  knowledge  gained  in  the  past  repre- 
sents skill  that  has  no  dependence  whatever  upon 
brain  memory.  If  a  man  should  suffer  a  lapse  of 
memory,   as    sometimes   happens,    and   wander   about 


172  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

unable  to  give  his  name  or  place  of  residence,  such 
loss  of  memory  does  not  prevent  him  using  any  skill 
he  may  have  evolved.  If  he  is  an  athlete  he  may  not 
know  in  what  gymnasium  he  evolved  his  great 
strength,  but  he  can  use  it  just  as  effectively  regard- 
less of  the  absence  of  memory. 

One  who  has  been  a  skillful  penman  brings  all  his 
skill  to  the  new  incarnation  but  of  course  the  new 
body  must  be  trained  to  hold  the  pen  and  form  the 
letters.  Every  public  school  teacher  knows  that  one 
child  will  quickly  learn  that  and  soon  become  a 
competent  penman  while  another  can  by  no  possibil- 
ity exhibit  skill  in  that  particular  art.  The  reason  is 
that  one  has  previously  evolved  his  skill  and  the  other 
has  not,  and  may  not,  for  several  more  incarnations. 

It  is  sometimes  objected  that  by  the  hypothesis  of 
reincarnation  we  are  required  to  go  over  the  same 
ground  again  and  again  and  learn  what  we  have 
previously  learned.  But  the  criticism  has  no  founda- 
tion in  fact.  There  is  undoubtedly  some  necessary 
recapitulation  in  the  early  part  of  the  incarnation,  just 
as  there  may  be  in  the  early  part  of  a  school  term. 
But  in  the  main  we  are  thrown  into  new  conditions 
which  are  calculated  to  develop  additional  faculties. 
We  return  to  the  same  material  world  but  we  find  it 
with  a  higher  form  of  civilization  than  when  we  were 
here  before.  Never  before  have  we  who  are  now  here 
seen  a  civilization  like  this,  with  its  age  of  iron  and 
steam  and  electricity,  with  its  marvelous  opportunities 
for  developing  the  mechanical  faculty  in  human  na- 
ture.    And    that   is    another   bit   of   evidence    of   the 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  173 

beauty  and  utility  of  the  evolutionary  scheme.  We 
come  back  always  to  greater  opportunities  than  we 
have  yet  known. 

It  is  not  only  clear  that  the  failure  to  remember 
the  past  has  nothing  to  do  with  our  ability  to  use  the 
skill  and  wisdom  we  have  previously  evolved  but  it 
is  equally  obvious  that  it  is  the  best  of  good  fortune 
that  we  cannot  remember  the  past.  If  we  could  do 
so  that  memory  would  keep  alive  the  personal  antag- 
onisms of  past  reincarnations.  Nobody  will  deny  that 
we  have  plenty  of  them  in  this  incarnation  or  that  the 
world  would  be  the  better  if  we  could  bury  some  of 
the  present  antagonisms  in  a  like  oblivion.  If  all 
quarreling  neighbors  were  to  suddenly  lose  memory 
of  their  feuds  it  would  be  an  undeniable  advantage  to 
everybody  concerned. 

Nature's  wisdom  in  veiling  the  past  from  us  can 
be  understood  by  observing  the  pernicious  effects  of 
remembering  too  long  the  blunders  people  make  in 
this  incarnation.  Take  the  case  of  a  very  young  man 
who  has  charge  of  his  employer's  money  and  who, 
finding  himself  pressed  for  ready  cash,  makes  the  grave 
mistake  of  "borrowing"  a  hundred  dollars  without  his 
employer's  knowledge  and  consent.  The  young  man 
really  believes  he  is  borrowing  it  and  knows  just 
where  the  money  is  to  come  from  to  replace  it  soon, 
and  he  thinks  nobody  but  himself  will  ever  know  any- 
thing about  it.  But  to  his  consternation  the  money 
that  was  due  him  in  a  few  days  cannot  be  collected  in 
time  and  an  unexpected  examination  of  his  books  leads 
to  his  arrest  for  embezzlement.     He  is  convicted,  sent 


174  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

to  prison  for  a  year,  and  returns  a  marked  man. 
Thoughtless  society  closes  its  doors  against  him.  He 
seeks  employment  in  vain.  Nobody  wants  an  ex- 
convict.  He  explains  that  he  had  no  criminal  intent 
and  that  he  really  was  guilty  of  only  an  indiscretion 
and  that  he  paid  back  the  money  later.  But  the  world 
is  too  busy  to  listen.  It  sees  only  the  court  record, 
and  that  was  against  him.  The  public  forgets,  or 
never  knows,  the  extenuating  circumstances.  But  it 
never  forgets  two  things — the  verdict  of  guilty  and 
the  prison.  The  young  man  would  almost  give  his 
life  for  a  chance  to  wipe  it  all  out,  but  it  is  impossible. 
It  stands  against  him  for  life.  But  nature  is  wise. 
She  does  not  permit  our  vicious  traits  to  extend  their 
injury  too  far.  If  we  could  remember  from  incarna- 
tion to  incarnation  that  man's  misfortune  might 
afflict  him  for  thousands  of  years.  But  by  the  wise 
plan  of  closing  all  accounts  at  the  end  of  each  incar- 
nation the  mischief  of  remembering  the  blunders  of 
others  comes  to  an  end.  In  the  next  incarnation  all 
start  with  clear  records  again. 

One  of  the  objections  that  one  sometimes  hears 
against  reincarnation  is  that  it  seems  to  separate  us 
for  long  periods,  if  not  forever,  and  that  even  when 
we  meet  those  we  have  previously  known  and  loved, 
there  is  no  memory  of  the  past.  The  answer  to  the 
first  point  is  that  the  separation  is  wholly  on  the  lower 
planes  and  that  the  time  spent  on  the  higher  planes 
is  often  twenty  times  that  given  to  the  lower.  Separa- 
tion is,  of  course,  unavoidable  on  the  physical  plane, 
even  where  people  live  together  in  the  same  home. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  175 

The  average  man  spends  most  of  the  day  at  his  office 
and  sleeps  about  eight  hours  during  the  twenty-four. 
He  is  really  separated  from  his  family  most  of  the 
time.  But  there  is  no  such  separation  on  higher  planes 
and  there  is  spent  most  of  the  whole  period  of  evolu- 
tion. The  second  point — that  we  do  not  now  have 
the  pleasure  of  knowing  that  our  friends  are  those  we 
knew  and  loved  before — is  not  an  important  one. 
What  is  really  important  is  that  we  again  have  them. 
If  the  ties  of  affection  have  been  strong  between  us 
in  the  past  there  will  be  instant  friendship  when  we 
meet  for  the  first  time  in  this  incarnation.  Those  with 
strong  heart  ties  are  certain  to  be  drawn  into  very 
close  association  life  after  life.  It  has  been  observed 
through  the  investigations  that  egos  have  been  hus- 
band and  wife,  or  parent  and  child,  again  and  again. 
The  probability  of  such  close  relationships  depends 
upon  the  strength  of  the  ties  of  affection.  But  if  such 
real  bond  between  the  souls  is  lacking  the  mere  fact 
that  they  now  have  family  relationships  is  no  guar- 
antee of  such  future  intimate  association.  When  two 
souls  have  strong  ties  arising  out  of  past  association 
the  failure  to  remember  that  incarnation  does  not  in 
the  least  weaken  the  ties.  But  it  does  mercifully  hide 
the  past  contentions  that  are  to  be  found  in  nearly 
all  lives. 

The  failure  to  remember  previous  incarnations  will 
be  more  clearly  understood  if  we  now  give  some 
thought  to  the  fact  that  the  personality  here  on  the 
material  plane  is  only  a  fragment  of  the  whole  con- 
sciousness of  the  soul.     As  we  come  down  into  lower 


176  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

planes  from  the  mental  world  each  grosser  grade  of 
matter  through  which  the  ego  expresses  itself  is  a 
limitation  of  consciousness.  On  the  astral  plane  each 
of  us,  whatever  he  may  be  here,  is  more  alive  and 
enjoys  an  actual  extension  of  consciousness.  On  the 
mental  plane  he  has  enormously  greater  wisdom  than 
here,  with  a  still  further  extension  of  consciousness 
that  is  quite  beyond  the  present  comprehension  of  the 
brain  intelligence. 

To  put  it  differently,  the  ego  really  does  not  come 
into  incarnation  at  all.  It  merely  sends  outward  a 
ray  from  itself — a  mere  fragment  of  itself,  as  a  man 
might  put  his  hand  down  into  the  water  of  a  shallow 
stream  to  gather  bits  of  ore  from  which  gold  can  be 
obtained.  So  the  ego  puts  a  finger,  only,  down  into 
denser  matter  to  get  the  general  experience  that  can 
be  transmuted  into  the  gold  of  wisdom  and  skill. 
That  finger  of  the  ego,  that  we  know  as  the  person- 
ality, gathers  the  experience  and  then  it  is  withdrawn 
into  the  ego.  During  the  incarnation  the  personality 
has  been  animated  by  only  a  little  of  the  ego's  vast 
intelligence  and  that  is  why  it  blunders  so  often.  But, 
veiled  in  dense  matter,  not  much  of  the  ego's  con- 
sciousness can  reach  it. 

The  relationship  between  the  ego  and  the  person- 
ality may  be  illustrated  by  that  which  exists  between 
the  brain  consciousness  and  that  of  the  finger-tip.  The 
difference,  of  course,  is  great.  The  finger  tip  cannot 
see  or  hear  or  taste  or  smell.  It  is  limited  to  one 
sense — touch.     But  it  is  a  form  of  consciousness,  and 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  177 


it  can  get  experience  and  pass  it  on  to  the  brain  con- 
sciousness. A  man  may  be  addressing  an  audience 
and  see  some  substance  on  the  table  before  him.  It 
may  be  sand  or  sugar.  Without  interrupting  his  lec- 
ture he  can  put  down  his  finger  and  get  at  the  truth 
about  the  matter.  The  finger-tip  gets  the  informa- 
tion and  passes  it  on  to  the  brain  consciousness. 
Meantime  there  has  been  no  pause  in  the  discourse. 
Not  a  phrase  nor  a  word  nor  the  shading  of  a  thought 
has  been  missed.  The  intellectual  life  went  on  in  its 
completeness  while  the  ray  of  intelligence  sent  down 
in  the  finger-tip  got  and  reported  the  fact  as  it  was. 
Just  so  the  life  of  the  ego — the  true  self  of  each  of 
us — goes  forward  on  its  home  plane  while  the  per- 
sonality here  gropes  for  its  harvest  of  experience. 
Some  of  those  experiences  will  be  painful  to  the  per- 
sonality, and  the  event  will  seem  tragic  here,  but  it 
will  be  a  passing  incident  to  the  ego.  In  the  illustra- 
tion just  used  the  substance  on  the  table  may  prove 
to  be  neither  sand  nor  sugar,  but  tiny  bits  of  glass. 
Some  of  the  sharp  points  may  penetrate  the  finger  and 
pain  follows.  To  the  finger-tip  consciousness  it  is  a 
blinding  flash  of  distress  that  is  overwhelming.  But 
to  the  brain  consciousness  it  is  a  trivial  incident. 
And  thus  it  is  with  most  of  our  painful  experiences 
here.  They  do  a  useful  work  in  our  evolution  and 
they  are  trifling  incidents  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
ego. 

The  personality  finishes  its  work  and  perishes,  in 
the  sense  that  it  is  drawn  up  and  incorporated  in  the 
ego.     Most  people  identify  themselves  so  fully  with 


178  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

the  personality  that  its  loss  seems  like  a  tragedy  to 
them.  But  that  feeling  will  trouble  them  no  longer 
when  the  ego  is  understood  to  be  the  real  self.  We 
might  say  that  the  relationship  between  the  ego  and 
the  personality  is  like  that  between  man  and  child. 
Childhood  will  perish  but  only  to  be  merged  into 
manhood.  When  we  look  at  that  transformation  from 
the  viewpoint  of  the  man  it  is  quite  satisfactory.  But 
if  looked  at  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  child  it  may 
look  appalling.  If  you  should  say  to  your  son  of  three 
summers,  "My  child,  the  time  will  come  when  all  these 
beautiful  toys  will  be  broken  and  lost  and  your  little 
playmates  will  see  you  no  more,"  you  might  cause 
him  much  distress.  It  would  seem  to  his  limited  child 
consciousness  nothing  less  than  a  tragic  destruction 
of  what  makes  life  worth  while.  But  when  he  reaches 
manhood  he  will  look  back  with  a  smile  to  the  trivial 
things  of  those  early  days.  If  there  is  something  in 
his  childhood  of  real,  permanent  value,  it  will  persist 
in  manhood.  All  the  trivial  and  transient  will  have 
disappeared  and  he  will  be  pleased  that  it  is  so,  for 
manhood  is  the  real  life  of  the  personality  as  the  ego 
is  the  real  self. 

As  the  memory  of  childhood  lives  in  the  brain  of 
the  man,  so  the  memory  of  all  the  hundreds  of  incar- 
nations persists  in  the  causal  body  and  is  an  eternal 
possession  of  the  ego.  When  we  are  sufficiently 
evolved  to  raise  the  consciousness  to  the  level  of  the 
causal  body,  while  still  living  on  the  physical  plane, 
as  some  people  are  now  able  to  do,  we  shall  thus  tem- 
porarily recover  the  memory  of  past  lives.     When  that 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  179 

time  comes,  however,  the  soul  is  sufficiently  advanced 
to  use  such  wider  knowledge  without  injury  to  itself 
or  others. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

VICARIOUS  ATONEMENT 

Back  of  the  old  doctrine  of  vicarious  atonement  is 
a  profound  and  beautiful  natural  truth,  but  it  has  been 
degraded  into  a  teaching  that  is  as  selfish  and  brutal 
as  it  is  false.  The  natural  truth  is  the  sacrifice  of  the 
solar  Logos,  or  the  deity  of  our  system.  The  sacrifice 
consists  of  limiting  Himself  in  the  matter  of  manifested 
worlds  and  it  is  reflected  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Christ 
and  other  great  teachers  who  use  their  vast  con- 
sciousness through  a  physical  brain  for  the  helping  of 
the  world.  Compared  to  the  descent  of  such  supermen 
into  mundane  spheres  a  mere  physical  death  is  a  trifling 
sacrifice  indeed. 

The  help  that  such  great  spiritual  beings  have  given 
mankind  is  incalcuable  and  altogether  beyond  what  we 
are  able  to  comprehend.  But  for  such  sacrifice  the  race 
would  be  very,  very  far  below  its  present  evolutionary 
level.  But  to  assume  that  such  sacrifices  relieve  man 
from  the  necessity  of  developing  his  spiritual  nature 
or  in  any  degree  nullify  his  personal  responsibility  is 
false  and  dangerous  doctrine.  Nobody  more  than  the 
theosophist  pays  to  the  Christ  the  tribute  of  the  most 

181 


182  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

reverent  gratitude.    He  also  holds  with  St.  Paul  that 
each  must  work  out  his  own  salvation. 

The  belief  in  special  creation  arose  in  that  period  of 
our  history  when  our  ancestors  knew  little  of  nature. 
Modern  science  was  then  unborn  and  superstition  filled 
the  western  world.  Now  that  we  do  know  the  truths  of 
nature,  now  that  we  know  that  creation  is  a  continuous 
process  that  is  still  going  on,  it  is  time  to  abandon  the 
old  conceptions  and  bring  religious  beliefs  and  scientific 
principles  into  harmonious  relationship. 

Wherever  it  touches  the  practical  affairs  of  life  the 
old  idea  of  special  creation  and  special  salvation  fail  to 
satisfy  our  sense  of  justice  and  of  consistency.  Intuitive- 
ly we  know  that  any  belief  that  is  not  in  harmony  with 
the  facts  of  life  is  a  wrong  belief.  The  idea  of  special 
creation  is  not  only  inconsistent  with  the  facts  as  science 
has  found  them,  but  it  does  not  give  us  a  sound  basis 
for  moral  development.  Having  started  with  the  false 
idea  of  the  special  creation  of  the  soul,  which  brings 
it  into  the  world  free  from  personal  responsibility,  it 
became  a  necessity  to  invent  a  special  salvation  to  give 
any  semblance  of  justice  at  all. 

Now  the  vital  point  against  this  plan  of  salvation  is 
that  it  denies  the  soul's  personal  responsibility  and 
teaches  that  whatever  the  offenses  against  God  and 
nature  have  been,  they  may  be  cancelled  by  the  simple 
act  of  believing  that  another  suffered  and  died  in  order 
that  those  sins  might  be  forgiven.  It  is  the  pernicious 
doctrine  that  wrong  doing  by  one  can  be  set  right  by 
the  sacrifice  of  another.  It  is  simply  astounding  that 
such  a  belief  could  have  survived  the  Middle  Ages  and 


! 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 185 

should  continue  to  find  millions  who  accept  it  in  these 
days  of  clearer  thinking.  But  it  seems  that  when  people 
are  taught  a  thing  in  childhood  the  mind  accepts  it 
then  without  reasoning  and  afterwards  vaguely  regards 
it  as  one  of  the  established  facts  without  thinking  further 
of  it  at  all.  But  upon  reflection  we  see  at  once  the 
impossibility  of  its  being  true.  We  hear  of  a  lingering 
practice  in  a  remote  province  of  China,  whereby  a 
man  convicted  of  a  crime  is  permitted  to  hire  a  substitute 
to  suffer  the  penalty  in  his  stead.  The  law  must  have 
its  victim  and  its  supremacy  must  be  upheld.  We  laugh 
at  that  and  know  well  enough  that  punishing  the  un- 
fortunate substitute,  who  sacrifices  himself  to  obtain  a 
sum  of  money  that  will  provide  for  his  family,  cannot 
regenerate  the  offender.  Indeed,  we  see  clearly  that  his 
willingness  to  shift  the  responsibility  for  his  crime  upon 
another  only  sinks  him  farther  into  iniquity.  The  only 
person  who  can  gain  in  moral  strength  is  the  one 
who  makes  the  sacrifice. 

Let  us  suppose  that  that  system  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment for  wrong  doing  were  to  be  adopted  generally. 
Then  every  murderer  who  had  the  means  would  escape 
the  consequences  of  his  crime.  Every  burglar  who  was 
successful  enough  to  have  the  cash  on  hand  could  elude 
prison.  Every  pickpocket  could  hire  a  substitute  to 
suffer  for  him  and  thus  continue  his  criminal  career. 
Every  embezzler  would  have  the  money  to  purchase 
freedom.  Every  corruptionist  would  be  safe.  Every 
thief  could  laugh  at  the  law.  It  would  make  a  mockery 
of  justice.  It  would  place  a  premium  upon  crime  and 
a  handicap  upon  honesty  and  virtue.     However  bad  the 


184  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

dishonest  might  be  it  would  make  them  worse.  It  would 
necessarily  lower  the  standard  of  their  morality  by  shift- 
ing the  burden  of  their  sins  to  others.  It  would  destroy 
personal  responsibility,  and  personal  responsibility  is  the 
basis  of  sound  morals  and  the  foundation  of  civilized 
society. 

Yet  that  is  precisely  the  sort  of  thing  that  goes  with 
the  belief  in  special  creation  and  special  salvation — the 
teaching  that  we  are  not  responsible  for  our  sins  and 
that  by  believing  that  another  assumed  them  and  died 
for  us  we  can  escape  the  results  of  our  wrong  doing 
and  thus  be  saved.  What  are  we  to  be  saved  from? 
From  nothing  but  ourselves.  From  our  selfishness,  from 
our  capacity  to  do  evil,  from  our  willingness  to  inflict 
pain,  from  our  lack  of  sympathy  with  all  suffering  and 
from  the  heartlessness  that  is  willing  to  let  others  suffer 
in  order  that  we  may  escape.  Salvation  must  necessarily 
mean  capacity  to  enjoy  heaven.  The  man  who  is  willing 
to  purchase  bliss  by  the  agony  of  another  is  unfit  for 
heaven  and  could  not  recognize  it  if  he  were  there. 
What  do  we  think  of  a  person  here  who  shifts  his  sins 
upon  another  and  while  that  other  suffers  he  goes  free 
and  enjoys  the  fruits  of  his  baseness? 

A  heaven  that  is  populated  with  those  who  see  in 
vicarious  atonement  a  happy  arrangement  for  letting 
them  in  pleasantly  and  easily  would  not  be  worth  having. 
It  would  be  a  heaven  of  selfishness  and  that  would  be 
no  heaven  at  all.  A  real  heaven  can  be  composed  only 
of  those  who  have  eliminated  selfishness;  only  of  those 
who  want  to  help  others  instead  of  trying  to  dodge  the 
consequences  of  their  own  acts;  only  of  those  who  are 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY   185 

manly  and  womanly  and  generous  and  just  and  true. 
Nothing  less  than  a  recognition  of  personal  responsibility 
can  lead  to  a  heaven  like  that.  Yet  the  theory  of  special 
salvation  ignores  it,  waves  it  aside — in  fact  denies  it! 

Reincarnation  represents  personal'  responsibilty 
and  therefore  absolute  justice.  It  shows  that,  not  merely 
in  all  the  vast  future,  but  also  in  this  life  and  in  every 
life,  and  all  the  time,  our  degree  of  happiness  depends 
upon  our  present  and  past  course.  If  reincarnation  were 
generally  understood  it  would  necessarily  raise  the 
average  of  morality.  It  furnishes  a  deterrent  for  the 
evil  doer  and  a  tremendous  incentive  for  the  man  who 
desires  to  obey  natural  law  and  be  happy.  It  shows  the 
one  that  there  is  no  possible  escape  from  evil  deeds; 
that  he  must  return  life  after  life  to  associations  and 
environments  determined  by  the  good  or  the  ill  he  has 
done;  that  he  can  no  more  escape  from  his  evil  deeds 
than  he  can  escape  from  himself ;  that  he  must  ultimately 
suffer  in  turn  the  pain  of  every  blow  and  the  humiliation 
of  every  insult  he  has  inflicted  upon  others.  It  assures 
the  man  of  good  intentions  and  right  desires  that  every 
good  deed  shall  rise  up  in  the  future  to  bless  him;  that 
all  whom  he  has  helped  shall  become  his  helpers  here- 
after; that  even  his  good  intentions  that  failed  in  their 
purpose  through  mistaken  judgment,  shall  bring  him  joy 
in  the  future. 

What  a  splendid  thing  it  is  to  know  that  every 
thought  and  act  adds  permanent  value  to  the  character; 
that  all  we  learn  in  any  life  becomes  an  eternal  posses- 
sion ;  that  we  can  add  to  our  intellect,  to  our  insight,  to 
our  compassion,  to  our  wisdom,  to  our  power,  as  cer- 


186  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

tainly  and  definitely  as  a  man  can  add  to  his  bank  account 
or  permanent  investments;  that  whatever  we  may  be  in 
this  incarnation  we  can  return  again  stronger  and  wiser 
and  better. 

The  hypothesis  of  reincarnation  shows  our  inherent 
divinity  and  the  method  by  which  the  latent  becomes 
the  actual.  Instead  of  the  ignoble  belief  that  we  can 
fling  our  sins  upon  another  it  makes  personal  responsibil- 
ity the  keynote  of  life.  It  is  the  ethics  of  self-help.  It 
is  the  moral  code  of  self-reliance.  It  is  the  religion  of 
self-respect. 

Think  of  the  utility  as  well  as  of  the  common-sense 
of  a  scheme  of  salvation  that  really  saves  us  because  it 
evolves  us;  that  never  denies  us  a  chance  to  retrieve  an 
error;  that  gives  us  an  opportunity  to  right  every 
wrong;  that  brings  us  back  life  after  life  until  all  ene- 
mies have  been  changed  to  friends ;  until  all  accounts 
are  closed  and  balanced;  until  all  our  powers  have 
been  evolved,  until  intellect  has  become  genius ;  until 
sympathy  has  become  compassion  and  the  last  moral 
battle  has  been  fought  and  won. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  FORCES  WE  GENERATE 

Every  human  being  is  constantly  generating  three 
classes  of  forces,  and  they  determine  the  kind  of  life 
he  will  lead  here,  the  degree  of  success  or  failure  that 
will  characterize  it,  and  the  state  of  his  consciousness 
on  the  inner  planes  after  the  death  of  his  physical  body. 
The  law  of  rebirth  brings  us  back  to  incarnation,  but 
it  is  the  law  of  action  and  reaction  under  which  we 
evolve  while  here. 

The  three  classes  of  energies  which  we  generate 
are  those  of  thought,  desire  and  action.  They  belong, 
in  the  order  named,  to  the  mental  world,  the  astral 
world  and  the  physical  world.  All  people  are  con- 
stantly thinking  and  desiring  and,  with  varying  de- 
grees of  energy,  are  putting  thought  and  desire  into 
action.  These  forces  sent  out  into  the  worlds  of 
thought,  emotion  and  action,  produce  certain  reac- 
tions, or  consequences,  and  to  them  the  man  is  bound 
until  justice  is  done  and  the  soul  has  learned  its  evo- 
lutionary lesson. 

That  thought  and  desire  are  forces  as  certainly  as 
electricity  is,  the  student  of  the  occult  well  knows, 
but  the  world  is  not  quite  yet  at  the  point  where  the 

187 


188  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

fact  is  generally  accepted.  That,  however,  is  the  his- 
tory of  all  human  progress.  When  Franklin  began 
his  experiments  with  electrical  force  almost  nobody 
believed  there  was  any  such  thing  in  existence.  Yet 
today  we  use  it  to  carry  our  messages,  run  our  trains 
and  drive  our  machinery.  Had  anybody  predicted  all 
that  at  the  time  of  the  first  experiments  he  would  have 
been  considered  extraordinarily  foolish.  What  the 
world  accepts  or  rejects  at  any  particular  time  usu- 
ally has  very  little  to  do  with  the  facts.  The  general 
public  can  be  expected  to  come  trailing  along,  about 
a  half  century  late,  with  its  acceptance  and  approval. 
Thought  is  a  force  or  telepathy  and  hypnotism  would 
be  impossible.  Both  have  been  scientifically  demon- 
strated. 

The  mental  body  grows  by  the  process  of  thinking. 
The  force  generated  in  thinking  reacts  in  the  produc- 
tion of  greater  faculty  for  thinking,  so  that  we 
literally  create  our  mental  abilities.  The  activities 
of  thought  change  the  mental  body  into  a  better 
and  constantly  better  instrument  through  which  the 
ego  can  express  itself.  But  our  thoughts  also  affect 
others  and  we  thereby  make  ties  with  them  that  must 
work  out  sooner  or  later  in  associated  experience. 

Desires  generate  a  kind  of  energy  that  plays  a 
most  important  role  in  the  drama  of  human  evolution. 
The  law  operates  to  bring  together  the  desirer  and  the 
object  that  aroused  the  desire.  For  the  soul  can  only 
judge  the  wisdom  of  its  desires  by  observing  the 
result  of  gratifying  them.  Thus  do  we  acquire  dis- 
crimination.    It  is  usually  a  strong  desire  nature  that 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  189 

brings  trouble  of  various  kinds  and  yet  the  force  of 
desire  it  is  that  pushes  all  evolution  onward.  Through 
experience  the  soul  finally  learns  to  control  desire, 
to  raise  lower  desires  into  higher  ones  and  thus  ulti- 
mately to  attain  non-attachment  and  liberation. 

Actions  are  the  physical  expression  of  thoughts 
and  desires  and,  as  we  are  constantly  simultaneously 
thinking,  desiring  and  acting,  very  complex  results 
arise.  In  the  multitudinous  activities  of  life  we  set 
up  relationships  with  other  souls,  some  of  the  results 
of  which  reach  far  into  the  future.  The  average  man, 
with  no  knowledge  of  the  laws  under  which  he  is 
evolving,  is  usually  making  both  friends  and  foes  for 
future  incarnations  and  is  often  unwittingly  laying 
up  pain  and  sorrow  for  himself  that  a  little  occult 
knowledge  would  enable  him  to  avoid.  Every  injury 
that  he  inflicts  will  return  to  him,  though  not  neces- 
sarily in  kind.  Nature  does  not  punish.  She  merely 
teaches  and  knows  nothing  of  retaliations.  Her  great 
concern  seems  to  be  that  all  souls  shall  get  on  in 
evolution  and  when  a  lesson  is  learned  her  purpose 
appears  to  be  accomplished. 

The  forces  we  generate  in  each  incarnation  shape 
and  determine  the  next  and  succeeding  ones.  Our 
friends,  our  families,  our  business  associates,  our  na- 
tion, are  determined  by  what  we  have  thought  and 
felt  and  done  in  the  past  and  by  the  lessons  it  is 
necessary  we  shall  learn.  Our  wealth  or  poverty,  our 
fame  or  obscurity,  our  strength  or  frailty,  our  intel- 
ligence or  stupidity,  our  good  or  bad  environment, 
our  freedom  or  limitations,  all  grow  out  of  the  thoughts 


190  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

and  emotions  and  acts  in  the  past.  From  their  con- 
sequences there  is  no  possibility  of  escape. 

But  that  does  not  mean  that  we  are  the  helpless 
slaves  of  fate  from  which  there  is  no  release.  We 
who  generated  the  forces  can  neutralize  them.  We 
can  undo  anything  we  have  done.  It  only  means  that 
for  a  time  we  must  work  within  the  self-imposed 
limitations  created  by  a  wrong  course  in  the  past. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  the  long-time  discus- 
sion over  free-will  and  determinism  have  often  been 
impressed  with  the  remarkably  strong  arguments  that 
can  be  marshaled  by  each  side  to  the  controversy. 
Either  side,  when  presented  alone,  appears  to  be  con- 
clusive. The  explanation  lies  in  the  fact  that  each 
is  right,  but  only  to  a  certain  point.  Both  free  will 
and  necessity  are  factors  and  when  the  theosophical 
viewpoint  is  understood  the  apparent  contradiction 
disappears.  We  are  temporarily  bound,  but  we  did 
the  binding,  by  the  desires  we  indulged  and  the  emo- 
tions we  freely  harbored  in  the  past. 

The  condition  of  temporary  restraint  in  which  we 
now  find  ourselves  may  be  likened  to  that  of  a  party 
of  gold  hunters  who  go  into  Alaska  to  locate  mines. 
They  are  all  aware  that  in  that  remote  northern  coun- 
try navigation  closes  very  early  and  that  after  the 
last  boat  leaves  there  is  no  possibility  of  getting  out 
of  that  region  until  navigation  opens  again  in  the  next 
season.  Some  of  them  are  discreet  and  reach  the  land- 
ing in  ample  time.  Others  are  careless.  They  con- 
tinue their  search  for  gold  a  little  too  long,  and  arrive 
at  the  river  a  day  too  late.     The  boat  has  sailed  and 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  191 

they  must  become  prisoners  of  the  ice  king.  It's  a 
great  misfortune  but  they  alone  are  responsible.  They 
cannot  escape  from  Alaska  for  many  months  but 
within  Alaska  they  are  absolutely  free.  They  can  build 
a  cabin  and  either  waste  the  time  with  idle  games 
or  seriously  think  and  study.  They  are  limited  but 
free  within  the  limitation,  and  the  limitation  itself  was 
of  their  own  making.  It  is  precisely  so  with  us  in 
the  environment  of  the  present  incarnation  and  with 
our  various  fortunes.  We  made  them  and,  when  the 
forces  with  which  we  did  it  are  exhausted,  we  shall 
be  free.  Meantime  we  can  do  much  toward  modifica- 
tion and  improvement. 

The  reactions  from  the  forces  we  generate  naturally 
do  us  exact  justice  just  because  they  are  reactions.  We 
reap  precisely  what  we  sow.  The  reaction  may  some- 
times seem  harsh  but  consideration  of  the  matter  from 
all  points  of  view  will  show  that  mercy  as  well  as 
justice  is  always  a  factor.  Let  us  consider  the 
method  by  which  nature  changes  recklessness  into  cau- 
tion. A  man  is  careless,  we  will  say,  about  lighting  a 
cigar  and  throwing  the  burning  match  down  wherever 
it  may  hapen  to  fall.  He  may  go  on  doing  that  a  long 
time  with  no  serious  result,  yet  all  careful  people 
know  that  he  is  a  source  of  danger.  Some  time  ago 
a  newspaper  told  the  story  of  such  a  man,  who  passed 
along  the  street,  lighted  a  cigaret  and  carelessly  flung 
the  flaming  match  from  him.  A  nurse  was  passing 
with  her  charge  in  its  tiny  carriage.  The  match  fell 
on  some  of  the  light,  airy  wraps  of  the  infant  and  they 
burst  into  a  blaze.     Before  the  fire  could  be  extin- 


192  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

quished  the  child  was  so  badly  burned  that  it  died 
the  next  day. 

The  moment  such  a  case  is  stated  we  realize  the 
necessity  of  something  that  will  cure  the  man  of  such 
fatal  carelessness.  He  is  a  menace  to  the  lives  and 
property  in  his  vicinity.  No  law,  however,  can  be 
invoked.  He  had  no  criminal  intent  but  he  is  none 
the  less  dangerous  for  that,  as  the  incident  proved. 
We  are  helpless,  however,  to  prevent  his  continued 
carelessness.  But  nature  is  not  helpless.  Under  the 
law  of  action  and  reaction  he  must  reap  as  he  has 
sown.  It  may  be  in  the  latter  part  of  this  incarnation, 
or  it  may  be  in  a  following  one,  but  sooner  or  later  his 
carelessness  will  react  and  he  will  lose  his  physical 
body  in  pain  and  distress  and  come  to  know  personally 
just  what  his  recklessness  means.  In  the  reaction,  a 
part  only  of  which  is  on  the  physical  plane,  he  gets  the 
experience  that  is  necessary  to  set  him  right.  The 
folly  of  his  course  is  so  driven  in  on  his  consciousness 
that  he  is.  changed  from  the  careless  man  to  the  care- 
ful man.  In  no  other  way  could  his  cure  be  brought 
about. 

It  may  be  said  that  if  a  misfortune  comes  to  us  as 
the  result  of  our  wrong  thinking  and  acting  in  a  past 
life  we  can  now  know  nothing  of  its  cause  and  there- 
fore we  cannot  profit  by  the  reaction.  But  while  we 
do  not  know  in  the  limited  consciousness  of  the  physi- 
cal brain  the  soul  does  know  and  in  the  wider  con- 
sciousness the  lesson  is  registered. 

The  principles  of  justice  are  never  violated  in 
teaching  the  soul  its  evolutionary  lessons.     Nothing 


ELEMENTARY  T  HEP  SOPHY 193 

can  come  to  a  man  that  he  does  not  merit  and  that 
which  often  looks  like  a  misfortune  is  only  the  bene- 
ficent working  of  the  law  seen  from  an  angle  that 
makes  it  illusory.  But,  it  may  be  objected,  how  does 
theosophy  see  "beneficient  working  of  the  law"  in  the 
burning  of  a  theater  where  a  score  of  people  lose  their 
lives,  including  several  children?  How  can  theos- 
ophy explain  that? 

How  can  it  be  explained  by  those  who  hold  that 
the  soul  is  created  at  birth?  If  God  really  brings  the 
soul  into  its  original  expression  in  an  infant  body, 
why  does  he  throw  it  out  again  in  a  few  years,  or  even 
months?  What  can  be  the  purpose?  It  would  be 
difficult  indeed  to  explain  the  death  of  children  if  the 
soul  were  created  at  birth.  But  let  us  look  at  it  from 
the  theosophical  viewpoint.  The  child  is  an  old  soul 
with  a  young  body.  Hark  back  to  the  case  of  the 
man  whose  carelessness  caused  the  death  of  the  baby 
in  its  carriage.  He,  and  others  like  him,  are  again  in 
incarnation  and  in  the  burning  theater  they  get  the 
reaction  of  the  unfortunate  forces  they  have  generated. 
But  why  so  many  in  some  catastrophes?  it  may  be 
asked.  A  principle  is  not  affected  by  the  number  in- 
volved. If  we  can  see  justice  in  the  death  of  one  per- 
son we  can  see  justice  in  the  death  of  a  hundred.  It  is 
simply  class  instruction.  People  of  a  kind  have  been 
drawn  together. 

We  should  not  forget  that  we  see  only  a  small 
fragment  of  any  such  case  from  the  phsical  plane.  We 
form  an  opinion,  however,  on  that  inadequate  survey 
and  are  quick  to  declare  our  opinion  of  the  justice  or 


194  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

injustice  involved.  But  our  verdict  depends  wholly 
upon  a  viewpoint.  Let  us  suppose,  for  example,  that  a 
man  strolls  down  the  street  and  that,  as  he  turns  a 
corner,  he  suddenly  comes  upon  a  little  tragedy  of 
life.  A  young  man  is  lying  on  the  ground,  battered 
and  bleeding,  while  two  others  stand  over  him.  What 
would  the  average  man,  coming  suddenly  on  the  scene 
say?  He  would  probably  indignantly  blurt  out  "The 
ruffians!"  and  he  would  be  inclined  to  assist  the  man 
who  was  down.  But  let  us  suppose  that  he  had  been 
a  moment  earlier.  He  would  then  have  been  in  time  to 
turn  around  the  corner  with  the  other  men  and  would 
have  seen  him  rush  upon  a  defenseless  woman,  push 
her  down,  snatch  her  purse  and  dash  away,  but,  for- 
tunately, in  the  direction  of  the  men  who  assaulted 
and  stopped  him.  Had  the  last  arrival  seen  the  entire 
affair  he  would  have  reversed  his  opinion  and  said  that 
the  thief  got  what  he  deserved.  And  so  it  is  in  our 
inadequate  physical  plane  view  of  what  we  call  a 
calamity.  It  may  appear  to  involve  an  injustice,  but 
only  because  we  do  not  see  the  entire  transaction. 

Those  who  study  the  occult  laws  that  shape  human 
destiny  may  learn  to  use  them  for  their  rapid  progress 
and  for  insuring  a  comfortable,  as  well  as  spiritually 
profitable,  life  journey. 

But  before  we  can  work  successfully  within  the 
law  we  must  know  that  the  law  really  exists.  Most 
people  seem  either  to  believe  there  is  no  law  that  will 
certainly  bring  them  the  results  of  their  good  or  evil 
thoughts  and  acts  or  that  if  there  is  such  a  law  they 
can  in  some  way  dodge  it  and  escape  the  consequence, 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 195 

and  so  we  see  them  go  along  through  life  always 
doing  the  selfish  thing  or  the  thoughtless  thing.  They 
mistate  facts,  they  engage  in  gossip,  they  harbor  evil 
thoughts,  they  have  their  enemies  and  hate  them,  they 
scheme  to  bring  discomfort  and  humiliation  upon  those 
whom  they  dislike.  And  then,  when  the  harvest  from 
this  misdirected  energy  is  ripe  and  they  are  misled 
by  the  falsehoods  of  others  to  their  loss  and  injury, 
when  they  fall  into  the  company  of  schemers  and  are 
swindled,  when  a  false  story  is  started  about  them, 
when — through  no  fault  of  the  moment — they  are 
plunged  into  discomfort  and  humiliation,  they  merely 
call  it  so  much  bad  luck  and  go  blindly  on  with  their 
generation  of  wrong  forces  that  will  in  due  time  bring 
another  enforced  reaping  of  pain. 

There  is  a  law  that  regulates  the  pleasure  and  pain 
of  daily  life  as  certainly  as  there  is  a  law  that  guides 
the  earth  in  its  orbit  about  the  sun.  That  law  of  ac- 
tion and  reaction  is  just  as  constant,  accurate  and 
immutable  as  the  law  of  gravity  that  keeps  our  feet 
upon  the  ground  while  we  come  and  go  and  think 
nothing  at  all  about  it. 

There  is  something  almost  terrifying  in  the  im- 
mutability of  all  natural  laws  and  their  utterly  im- 
personal aspect.  They  are  the  operation  of  forces 
which,  in  themselves,  are  not  related  to  what  we  call 
good  and  bad.  They  simply  are.  The  law  of  gravity 
will  illustrate  the  point.  It  operates  with  no  considera- 
tion whatever  for  character  or  motives.  It  holds  all 
people,  good  and  bad  alike,  firmly  upon  the  earth  while 
it  whirls  through  space.    If  a  saint  and  a  fiend  stumble 


196  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

over  a  precipice,  it  will  hurl  them  both  to  the  bottom 
with  perfect  impartiality.  If  the  fiend,  who  may  just 
have  murdered  a  victim,  is  more  cautious  than  the 
saint  and  avoids  the  precipice,  the  law  has  not  favored 
him.  He  has  merely  reaped  the  reward  of  his  alert- 
ness in  spite  of  his  bad  morals.  The  saintly  man 
may  have  come  fresh  from  some  deed  of  mercy  but 
the  law  of  gravity  takes  no  account  of  that.  When  he 
stepped  over  the  precipice,  and  was  dashed  to  death, 
he  paid  the  penalty  of  carelessness  regardless  of  his 
benevolence.  There  is  profound  wisdom  in  the  words 
"God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,"  for,  of  course,  all 
natural  laws  are  but  the  expression  of  the  divine  will. 
But  this  immutability  of  natural  law  is  not  in  the 
least  terrifying  when  we  come  to  look  more  closely  at 
it.  On  the  contrary  it  is  within  that  very  immutability 
that  divine  beneficence  and  compassion  are  hidden.  It 
is  only  by  the  constancy  if  the  changeless  law  that  we 
can  calculate  with  absolute  certainty  and  surely  atain  the 
results  at  which  we  aim.  It  is  because  of  the  certainty 
that  the  doing  of  evil  brings  pain  and  the  doing  of  good 
yields  a  return  of  happiness  that  we  can  control  cir- 
cumstances and  determine  destiny. 

Why  should  there  be  such  a  law  operating  in  the 
mental  and  moral  realm?  Because  only  thus  can  we 
evolve.  We  must  not  only  change  from  ignorance  to 
wisdom  but  from  selfishness  to  compassion,  from  wrong 
doing  to  perfect  harmlessness.  How  would  that  be 
possible  without  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  without 
action  and  reaction  which  brings  pleasure  for  right- 
eousness and  pain  for  evil  deeds?    Only  under  such  a 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  197 

law  can  we  learn  what  is  the  right  and  what  is  the 
wrong  thing  to  do.  If  it  is  agreed  that  we  are  souls, 
that  evolution  is  a  fact,  and  that  perfection  is  the  goal 
of  the  human  race,  then  the  necessity  for  the  law  of 
action  and  reaction  is  as  obvious  as  the  reason  for  a 
law  of  gravity. 

The  existence  and  operation  of  this  law  of  cause  and 
effect  are  set  forth  repeatedly  in  the  Christian  scriptures. 
"With  what  measures  ye  mete  it  to  others  it  shall  be 
measured  to  you,"  is  certainly  explicit.  In  Proverbs*  we 
have  this  definite  declaration:  "Whoso  diggeth  a  pit 
shall  fall  therein,  and  he  that  rolleth  a  stone,  it  shall 
return  upon  him."  Of  course  the  language  is  figurative. 
No  writer  of  common  sense  would  assert  that  every  time 
a  workman  digs  a  pit  he  shall  tumble  into  it  nor  that 
whenever  anybody  rolls  a  stone  it  will  roll  back  upon 
him!  We  dig  pits  in  the  moral  world  whenever  we 
undermine  the  character  of  another  with  a  false  story, 
whether  we  originate  it  or  merely  repeat  it,  and  into 
such  a  pit  we  shall  ourselves  fall,  in  the  reaction  of  the 
law.  We  have  loosened  and  set  rolling  the  stones  of 
envy  and  hatred  and  they  shall  return  to  crush  us  down 
to  failure  and  humiliation  in  the  reaction  that  follows. 
We  have  ignorantly  generated  evil  forces  under  the  law 
when  we  could  have  used  it  for  our  success  and  happi- 
ness. 

"Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged,"  is  another  state- 
ment of  the  law  of  action  and  reaction.  It  is  not  an 
assertion  that  we  should  not  judge  because  we  are  not 

*Proverbs,  XXVI,  27. 


198  ELEMENTARY  THEO SOPHY 

qualified  nor  because  we  may  ignorantly  wrong  another 
with  such  a  judgment.  It  is  an  explicit  statement  that 
the  consequence  of  judging  others  is  that  we,  in  turn, 
shall  be  judged.  If  we  criticize,  we  shall  be  criticized. 
If  we  condemn  others  for  their  faults  and  failures,  we 
shall  be  condemned.  If  we  are  broad  and  tolerant  and 
remain  silent  about  the  frailties  of  others  we  shall  be 
tolerantly  regarded  by  others. 

All  of  us  who  have  studied  the  subject  find  in  our 
daily  lives  the  evidence  of  the  truth  of  such  Biblical 
declarations.  We  know  perfectly  well  that  anger  pro- 
vokes anger  and  that  conciliation  wins  concessions,  while 
retaliation  keeps  a  feud  alive.  We  know  that  retort 
calls  out  retort,  while  silence  restores  the  peace.  In 
these  little  things  it  is  usually  within  the  power  of  either 
party  to  the  trouble  to  have  peace  instead  of  turmoil — 
just  a  matter  of  self  control.  But  in  the  larger  events 
it  is  not  always  so.  They  are  not  invariably  within  our 
immediate  control  because  they  are  often  the  results  of 
causes  generated  in  the  past  which  we  can  no  longer 
modify.  And  this  brings  us  to  a  wider  view  of  this  law 
of  cause  and  effect. 

If  we  look  at  the  life  history  of  an  individual  as  it 
stretches  out  from  birth  to  death  it  presents  a  remark- 
able record  of  events  that  appear  to  have  no  logical  rela- 
tionship to  each  other.  In  childhood,  there  may  have 
been  either  great  happiness  or  great  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing regardless  of  the  qualities  of  character  we  are  consid- 
ering, and  there  is  nothing  in  the  present  life  of  the  child 
to  explain  either.  The  child  itself  may  be  gentle  and 
affectionate  and  yet  it  may  be  the  recipient  of  gross 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  199 

abuse  and  cruel  misunderstanding.  In  maturity  we  may 
find  still  greater  mysteries.  Invariably  there  are  mingled 
successes  and  failures,  pleasures  and  pains.  But  when 
we  come  to  analyze  them  we  fail  to  find  a  satisfactory 
reason  for  them.  We  see  that  the  successes  often  arrive 
when  they  are  not  warranted  by  anything  that  was  done 
to  win  them,  and  for  the  want  of  any  rational  explana- 
tion we  call  it  "good  luck."  We  also  observe  that  some- 
times failure  after  failure  comes  when  the  man  is  not 
only  doing  his  very  best  but  when  all  of  his  plans  will 
stand  the  test  of  sound  business  procedure.  Baffled 
again  we  throw  logic  to  the  winds  and  call  it  "bad  luck." 

Luck  is  a  word  we  use  to  conceal  our  ignorance  and 
our  inability  to  trace  the  working  of  the  law.  Suppose 
we  were  to  ask  a  savage  to  explain  how  it  is  that  a  few 
minutes'  time  with  the  morning  paper  enables  one  to 
know  what  happened  yesterday  in  London.  He  knows 
nothing  of  reporters  and  cables  and  presses.  He  cannot 
explain  it.  He  cannot  even  comprehend  it.  But  if  he 
is  a  vain  savage  and  does  not  wish  to  admit  his  ignorance 
he  might  solemnly  assert  that  the  reason  we  know  is 
because  we  are  lucky ;  and  he  would  be  using  the  word 
just  as  sensibly  as  we  use  it! 

If  by  luck  we  mean  chance,  there  is  no  such  thing 
in  this  world.  Chance  means  chaos  and  the  absence 
of  law.  From  the  magnificent,  orderly  procession  of 
a  hundred  million  suns  and  their  world  systems  that 
wheel  majestically  through  space  down  to  the  very  atom, 
with  all  of  its  electrons,  the  universe  is  a  stupendous 
proclamation  of  the  all-pervading  presence  of  law.     It 


200  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

is  a  mighty  panorama  of  cause  and  effect.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  chance. 

What  then  is  good  luck?  We  know  that  people  do 
receive  benefits  which  they  apparently  have  not  earned. 
There  simply  cannot  be  a  result  without  a  cause.  They 
have  earned  it  in  other  lives  when  the  conditions  did 
not  permit  immediate  harvesting  of  the  results  of  the 
good  forces  generated  and  Nature  is  paying  the  debt  and 
making  the  balance  of  her  books  at  a  later  period.  It 
may  be  in  the  case  of  one  that  some  specific  act  is  at- 
tracting its  reward,  or  it  may  be  in  the  case  of  another 
that  he  is  nearing  the  point  in  evolution  where  he  no 
longer  desires  things  for  himself,  only  to  discover  that 
nature  fairly  flings  her  treasures  at  his  feet.  He  has 
put  himself  in  harmony  with  evolutionary  law — with  the 
divine  plan,  and  nature  withholds  nothing. 

When  we  eliminate  chance,  then,  we  are  forced  to 
seek  the  cause  of  unexplained  good  or  bad  fortune  be- 
yond the  boundaries  of  this  life  because  there  is  noth- 
ing else  we  can  do.  We  have  results  to  explain  and  we 
know  they  do  not  come  from  causes  that  belong  to  this 
life.  They  must  of  necessity  arise  from  causes  gener- 
ated in  a  past  life. 

Now  the  moment  we  get  away  from  the  narrow  view 
that  we  began  existence  when  we  were  born,  all  the 
mysteries  about  us  disappear  and  we  can  fall  back  on 
natural  law  and  logically  explain  everything.  Why  does 
one  person  begin  life  with  a  good  mind  while  another  is 
born  with  small  mental  capacity?  Because  one  worked 
hard  at  life's  problems  in  past  incarnations  while  the 
other  led  a  butterfly  existence  and  merely  amused  him- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  201 

self.  Why  does  one  move  serenely  through  trying  cir- 
cumstances always  maintaining  a  cheerful  view  of  life 
while  another  loses  control  of  his  temper  at  the  slightest 
annoyance  and  wears  himself  out  with  the  trifling  vexa- 
tions of  existence?  Only  because  one  has  for  a  long 
period  practiced  self  control  while  the  other  has  never 
given  a  thought  to  the  matter.  Why  is  one  so  thought- 
ful of  others  that  he  wins  universal  love  and  admiration 
while  another  is  so  self  centered  that  he  makes  no  true 
friends  at  all?  Again  past  experience  explains  it.  The 
one  has  studied  the  laws  of  destiny  and  lived  by  them 
while  the  other  has  not  yet  even  learned  of  their  exist- 
ence. 

Putting  aside  the  old  belief  that  the  soul  is  created 
at  birth,  and  keeping  in  mind  the  newer  and  scientific 
view  that  we  have  all  lived  many  lives  before,  all  the 
difficulties  and  perplexities  at  once  disappear.  We  are 
no  longer  puzzled  because  we  find  in  a  man's  life  some 
good  fortune  when  he  has  apparently  done  nothing  to 
deserve  it,  for  we  see  that  he  must  have  set  the  forces 
in  motion  in  a  previous  life  which  now  culminate  in 
this  result.  We  are  no  longer  mystified  because  appar- 
ent causeless  misfortunes  befall  him  for  we  know  that 
in  the  nature  of  things  he  did  generate  the  causes  in  the 
past.  A  single  incarnation  has  the  same  relation  to  the 
whole  of  the  soul's  evolution  that  a  single  day  has  to  one 
incarnation.  As  the  days  are  separated  by  the  nights 
and  yet  all  the  days  are  related  by  the  acts  which  run 
through  them,  so  the  incarnations  are  separated  by  periods 
of  rest  in  the  heaven  world  and  yet  all  the  incarnations 
are  related  by  the  thoughts  and  acts  running  through 


202  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

them.  What  a  man  does  in  his  youth  affects  his  old 
age,  and  what  we  did  in  our  last  incarnation  is  affecting 
the  present  one.  The  one  is  no  more  remarkable  than 
the  other.  As  we  mould  old  age  by  youth  so  we  are 
shaping  the  coming  incarnation  by  this  one.  Before  we 
shall  be  able  to  see  the  utter  reasonableness  of  the  truth 
that  what  we  are  now  is  the  result  of  our  past  we  must 
have  a  clear  understanding  of  the  relationship  between 
the  soul  and  the  body.  The  physical  body  in  each  incar- 
nation is  the  material  expression  of  the  soul,  of  its  moral 
power  or  weakness,  of  its  wisdom  or  ignorance,  of  its 
purity  or  its  grossness,  just  as  one's  face  is,  at  each  mo- 
ment the  expression  of  one's  thought  and  emotion  in 
physical  matter.  Every  change  of  consciousness  registers 
itself  in  matter.  A  man  has  emotions.  He  feels  a  thrill  of 
joy  and  his  face  proclaims  the  fact.  He  becomes  angry, 
and  the  change  from  joy  to  anger  is  registered  in  physical 
matter  so  that  all  who  see  his  face  are  aware  of  the 
change  in  his  consciousness,  which  they  cannot  see.  These 
are  passing  changes  like  sunshine  and  shadow  and  they 
are  obvious  to  all.  But  we  know  that  as  the  years  pass 
the  constant  influence  of  consciousness  moulds  even 
physical  matter  into  permanent  form.  A  soul  of  sunny 
disposition  finally  comes  to  have  benevolent  features 
while  one  of  morose  tendency  as  certainly  has  a  face  of 
settled  gloom.  Nobody  can  contact  the  soul  of  another 
with  any  physical  sense  we  possess  yet  nobody  has  the 
slightest  doubt  of  his  ability  to  distinguish  between  a 
sunny,  peaceful  soul  and  a  soul  that  is  not  in  harmony 
with  life.  We  know  the  difference  only  because  con- 
sciousness moulds  matter.     But  this  is  merely  the  sur- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 203 

face  indication.  Consciousness  is  continually  influencing 
matter  and  the  major  part  of  its  work  is  not  visible  to 
us.  What  the  consciousness  is,  the  body  becomes. 
Whether  we  are  now  brilliant  or  stupid,  comely  or  de- 
formed, is  the  result  of  the  activities  of  consciousness, 
and  the  very  grain  of  the  flesh  and  the  shape  of  the 
physical  body  are  the  registrations  in  matter  of  what  we, 
the  soul,  thought  and  did  in  the  past. 

Consider  a  specific  thing  like  deformity  and  we  shall 
begin  to  see  just  why  and  how  it  may  have  come  about. 
If  in  a  past  life  a  person  was  guilty  of  deliberate  cruelty 
to  another,  and  on  account  of  it  suffered  great  mental 
and  emotional  distress  afterward,  it  would  be  no  re- 
markable thing  if  the  mental  images  of  the  injuries  in- 
flicted on  his  victim  are  reproduced  in  himself.  In  idocy 
we  have  apparently  merely  a  distorted  brain  so  that  the 
consciousness  cannot  function  through  it.  Might  not 
that  distortion  of  the  physical  brain  easily  be  the  result 
of  violent  reaction  from  cruelties  in  a  past  life?  The 
consciousness  that  can  be  guilty  of  cruelty  is  seeing  things 
crooked — out  of  proportion.  Otherwise  it  could  not  be 
cruel.  This  distortion  in  consciousness  must  register 
a  corresponding  distortion  in  matter,  for  the  body  is 
the  faithful  and  accurate  reflection  of  that  consciousness. 
It  is  just  because  the  body  is  the  true  and  exact  ex- 
pression of  the  consciousness  in  physical  matter  that  the 
palmist  and  phrenologist  can  sometimes  give  us  such 
remarkable  delineations  of  character.  The  record  is 
there  inliand  and  head  for  those  who  can  read  it. 

This  broader  outlook  on  the  life  journey,  extending 
over  a  very  long  series  of  incarnations,  gives  us  a  wholly 


204  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

different  view  of  the  difficulties  with  which  we  have  to 
contend  and  of  the  limitations  which  afflict  us.  It  at 
once  shows  us  that  in  the  midst  of  apparent  injustice 
there  is  really  nothing  but  perfect  justice  for  every- 
body; that  all  good  fortune  has  been  earned;  that  all 
bad  fortune  is  deserved,  and  that  each  of  us  is,  mentally 
and  morally,  what  he  has  made  himself.  Maesfield  put 
it  well  when  he  wrote: 

All  that  I  rightly  think  or  do, 

Or  make  or  spoil  or  bless  or  blast, 

Is  curse  or  blessing  justly  due 

For  sloth  or  effort  in   the  past. 

My  life's  a  statement  of  the  sum 

Of  vice  indulged  or  overcome. 

And  as  I  journey  on  the  roads 

I  shall  be  helped  and  healed  and  blest. 

Dear  words  shall  cheer,  and  be  as  goads 
To  urge  to  heights  as  yet  unguessed. 

My  road  shall  be  the  road  I  made. 

All  that  I  gave  shall  be  repaid. 

Have  we  ever  heard  of  a  plan  more  just,  of  a  truth 
more  inspiring?  It  is  surely  a  satisfying  thought  that 
every  effort  shall  give  increased  power  of  intellect;  that 
all  kindly  thought  of  others  is  a  shield  for  our  own  pro- 
tection in  time  of  need;  that  every  impulse  of  affection 
shall  ripen  into  the  love  of  comrades ;  that  all  noble 
thinking  builds  heroic  character,  with  which  we  shall  re- 
turn, in  some  future  time,  to  play  to  a  still  noble  part  in 
the  world  of  men. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SUPERPHYSICAL  EVOLUTION 

If  we  accept  the  idea  of  evolution  at  all  we  cannot 
escape  the  conclusion  that  there  is  superphysical  evolu- 
tion. The  belief  that  man  is  the  highest  intelligence  in 
the  universe,  except  God  himself,  would  be  utterly  in- 
consistent with  evolutionary  facts  and  principles.  Evo- 
lution is  a  continuous  unfolding  from  within,  and  it  is 
only  the  limitation  of  our  senses  that  leads  us  to  set 
limitations  to  it.  The  one  great  life  of  the  universe 
expresses  itself  in  myriad  forms  and  at  innumerable 
levels  of  development.  One  of  those  levels  is  humanity. 
But  as  certainly  as  our  consciousness  has  evolved  to  its 
present  stage  it  shall  go  on  to  higher  ones. 

Orderly  gradation  is  clearly  nature's  method  of  ex- 
pression. A  continuous,  unbroken  line  of  life  reaches 
downward  from  man.  Its  successive  stages  are  seen  in 
the  animals,  the  reptiles,  the  insects  and  the  microbes. 
Even  the  great  kingdoms  into  which  the  biologist  divides 
life  fade  into  each  other  almost  imperceptibly  and  it 
becomes  difficult  to  say  where  the  vegetable  kingdom 
stops  and  the  animal  kingdom  begins.  Just  as  that 
continuous  chain  of  life  runs  downward  from  man  it 
must  also  rise  above  him  until  it  merges  in  the  Supreme 

205 


206  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

Being.  There  must  necessarily  be  the  higher  as  well 
as  the  lower  products  of  evolution.  Man  is  merely  one 
link  in  the  evolutionary  chain.  The  human  level  is  the 
point  where  consciousness  has  become  completely  indi- 
vidualized and  is  capable  of  turning  back  upon  itself  and 
studying  its  own  inner  processes. 

The  thought  of  Occidental  civilization  has  been  sadly 
fettered  with  materialism.  It  has  scarcely  dared  to 
think  beyond  that  which  could  be  grasped  with  the 
hands.  The  physical  senses  were  its  outposts  of  in- 
vestigation. What  could  not  be  seen  or  heard  or  felt 
had  no  existence  for  it.  Modern  science  explored  the 
material  universe  and  perfected  its  methods  until  the  vast 
panorama  of  worlds  could  be  intimately  studied,  and 
its  illimitable  scope  and  colossal  grandeur  be  somewhat 
comprehended.  But  there  was  no  study  of  life  com- 
parable to  the  vast  stretch  of  worlds ;  for  material  science 
had  made  the  remarkable  blunder  of  assuming  that  the 
last  word  on  the  nature  of  matter  had  been  said.  Then 
came  the  startling  discoveries  that  revolutionized '  the 
accepted  views  of  matter,  that  proved  that  the  supposed- 
ly indivisible  atom  was  a  miniature  universe,  a  tiny 
cosmos  of  force.  The  old  theories  about  matter  had  to 
be  thrown  aside.  They  were  as  much  out  of  date  as 
the  belief  that  the  earth  is  flat.  Stripped  of  technical 
terms  of  expression  the  revised  view  of  matter  is,  sub- 
stantially, that  it  is  the  lowest  expression  of  life;  and 
now  modern  science  is  turning  tardy  attention  to  a 
study  of  the  life  side  of  the  universe.  The  moment  that 
is  done  the  sense  of  consistency  and  the  law  of  cor- 
respondence compel  us  to  postulate  a  gradation  of  in- 


ELEMENTARY  T  HEP  SOPHY 207 

telligences   rising  above   man   as   man   does   above   the 
insects. 

The  scientific  mind  instantly  grasps  the  inherent 
reasonableness  of  the  existence  of  superphysical  beings. 
Writing  on  the  subject  of  energy,  Nicola  Tesla  says. 

"We  can  conceive  of  organized  beings  living  with- 
out nourishment  and  deriving  all  the  energy  they 
need  for  the  performance  of  their  life  functions 
from  the  ambient  medium.***  There  may  be  *** 
individualized  material  systems  of  beings,  perhaps 
of  gaseous  constitution,  or  composed  of  substance 
still  more  tenuous.  In  view  of  this  possibility — 
nay,  probability — we  cannot  appodictically  deny  the 
existence  of  organized  beings  on  a  planet  merely  be- 
cause the  conditions  on  the  same  are  unsuitable  for 
the  existence  of  life  as  we  conceive  it.  We  cannot 
even,  with  positive  assurance,  assert  that  some  of 
them  might  not  be  present  here  in  this  our  world, 
in  the  very  midst  of  us,  for  their  constitution  and 
life  manifestation  may  be  such  that  we  are  unable 
to  perceive  them."* 

Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  who  was  called  "the  grand 
old  man  of  science,"  wrote  in  one  of  his  latest  books: 

"I  think  we  have  got  to  recognize  that  between 
man  and  the  ultimate  God  there  is  an  almost  infinite 
multitude  of  beings  working  in  the  universe  at  large, 
at  tasks  as  definite  and  important  as  any  we  have 
to  perform  on  earth.  I  imagine  that  the  universe  is 
peopled  with  spirits — that  is,  with  intelligent  beings — 
with  powers  and  duties  akin  to  our  own,  but  vaster. 
I  think  there  is  a  gradual  ascent  from  man  upward 
and  onward." 

While  the  scientist,  still  lacking  the  absolutely  con- 


*"The  Conservation  of  Energy,"     Nicola  Tesla,  Century 
Magazine,  June  1900.. 


208  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

elusive  evidence,  goes  only  to  the  point  of  asserting  that 
it  is  reasonable  and  probable  that  supermen  exist,  the 
occultist  asserts  it  as  a  fact  within  his  personal  knowl- 
edge.f  So  we  have  the  direct  testimony  of  the  occult- 
ists, the  endorsement  of  the  scientists  as  to  its  probabil- 
ity, and,  perhaps  the  most  important  of  all,  the  inherent 
reasonableness  of  the  idea. 

The  relationship  of  the  supermen,  or  great  spiritual 
hierarchy,  to  the  human  race  is  that  of  teachers, 
guardians  and  directors.  They  superintend  human 
evolution.  But  this  does  not  mean  in  the  very  least 
the  relationship  that  is  expressed  in  the  term  "spirit 
guides"  so  frequently  use  by  the  spiritualist.  That  is 
a  totally  different  thing.  They  seem  to  imply  that  the 
"spirit  guide"  gives  direct  instructions  or  orders  to  the 
person  known  as  a  "medium."  If  we  were  all  thus  con- 
trolled and  directed  what  would  become  of  free  will? 
Evolution  can  proceed  only  if  we  use  our  initiative  in 
the  affairs  of  life.  If  we  were  to  be  directed  by  the 
wisdom  and  will  of  others  we  would  not  evolve  at  all. 
We  would  be  merely  automata  directed  by  others,  and 
no  matter  how  great  they  were  we  could  never  thus 
develop  our  judgment  and  self-reliance.  It  is  not  thus 
that  the  great  spiritual  hierarchy  directs  human  evolu- 
tion. It  is,  in  part,  by  working  with  mankind  en  masse 
and  bringing  mental  and  moral  forces  to  play  upon  them, 
thus  stimulating  latent  spiritual  forces  from  within.  It 
is  also  by  directly,  or  indirectly  placing  ideals  instead 
of  commands  before  the  race.     In  another  direction  it 

f  An  Outline  of  Theosophy,  C.  W.  Leadbeater,  p.  6-12. 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  209 

is  actual  superintendence,  or  administration,  or  teaching, 
in  a  way  that  does  not  interfere  with  one's  initiative  or 
will.  If  the  soul  is  to  evolve  it  must  have  liberty — even 
the  freedom  to  make  mistakes. 

It  is  sometimes  asked  why,  if  the  supermen  exist, 
those  who  are  in  incarnation  do  not  come  out  into  the 
world  and  give  us  ocular  evidence  of  the  fact.  It  is 
pointed  out  that  they  could  speedily  convince  the  world 
by  a  display  of  superphysical  force.  But  they  are  prob- 
ably not  in  the  least  interested  in  convincing  anybody 
of  their  existence.  They  are  interested  in  raising  the 
general  level  of  morality,  of  course,  but  such  an  exhibi- 
tion would  not  make  people  morally  better.  The  work 
of  the  supermen  can  best  be  done  from  higher  planes 
than  the  physical.  As  for  the  very  small  number  of  the 
superman  who  take  physical  bodies  to  better  do  their 
special  work,  they  can  best  accomplish  it  from  secluded 
places;  and  if  they  sometimes  have  reason  to  come  out 
into  the  seething  vibrations  of  our  modern  civilization  it 
it  easy  to  understand  that  they  would  not  be  conspicuous- 
ly different  from  other  men,  to  the  ordinary  observer. 

It  is  from  the  spiritual  hierarchy  that  come  all  the 
religions  of  the  world.  There  the  question  may  arise, 
"Then  why  do  they  differ  so  greatly?"  Because  the 
peoples  to  whom  they  are  given  differ  greatly.  The 
difference  of  temperament  and  viewpoint  between  the 
Orient  and  the  Occident  is  enormous.  We  are  evolving 
along  the  outer,  the  objective,  and  our  civilization  rep- 
resents the  material  conquest  of  nature.  They  are 
evolving  the  inner,  the  subjective.  In  the  Orient  the 
common  trend  of  conversation  is  philosophical,  just  as 


210  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

in  the  Occident  it  is  commercial.  Such  different  types 
of  mind  require  somewhat  different  statements  of  ethics, 
but  the  fundamental  principles  of  all  religions  are  iden- 
tical. 

When  a  new  era  in  human  evolution  begins  a  World 
Teacher  comes  into  voluntary  incarnation  and  founds  a 
religion  that  is  suited  to  the  requirements  of  the  new 
era.  Humanity  is  never  left  to  grope  along  alone.  All 
that  it  can  comprehend  and  utilize  is  taught  it  in  the 
various  religions.  World  Teachers,  the  Christs  and 
saviours  of  the  race,  have  been  appearing  at  propitious 
times  since  humanity  began  existence. 

Most  readers  will  probably  agree  that  a  World 
Teacher  known  as  the  Christ  did  come  and  found  a 
religion  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago.  Why  do  they 
think  so  ?  They  reply  that  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
he  sent  his  Son,  the  Christ,  to  bring  it  light  and  life. 
If  that  is  true  how  can  we  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
He,  or  his  predecessors,  must  have  come  many  a  time 
before?  The  belief  that  He  came  but  once  is  con- 
sistent only  with  the  erroneous  notion  that  Genesis  is 
history  instead  of  allegory,  and  that  the  earth  is  about 
six  thousand  years  old!  Science  has  not  determined 
its  age  but  we  know  that  it  is  very  old,  indeed.  Many 
eminent  scientists  have  made  rough  estimates,  taking 
into  consideration  all  that  we  have  learned  from  astrono- 
my, geology  and  archeology.  Phillips,  the  geologist, 
basing  his  calculations  upon  the  time  required  for  the 
depositions  of  the  stratified  rocks,  put  the  minimum 
age  at  thirty-eight  million  years  and  the  maximum  age 
at  ninety-six  million  years.     Sir  George  Darwin,  bas- 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  211 

ing  His  calculation  wholly  upon  astronomical  data,  puts 
the  earth's  age  at  a  minimum  of  fifty-six  million  years. 
Joly  arrived  at  his  estimate  by  a  calculation  of  the  time 
required  to  produce  the  sodium  content  of  the  ocean, 
and  concluded  that  the  age  of  the  earth  is  between 
eighty  million  and  one  hundred  million  years.  Sollas  is 
said  to  have  made  careful  study  of  the  matter  and  he 
finds  the  minimum  to  be  eighty  million,  and  the  maximum 
age  to  be  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  years.  But 
perhaps  the  most  exhaustive  study  of  the  matter,  and 
that  made  by  the  use  of  the  later  scientific  knowledge, 
was  by  Bosler,  of  the  French  scientists.  He  bases  his 
calcualations  upon  the  radio-activity  of  rocks  and  ar- 
rives at  a  minimum  earth  age  of  seven  hundred  and  ten 
millions  of  years.  Thus  it  will  be  observed  that  as  our 
knowledge  grows  the  estimated  age  of  the  earth  in- 
creases. 

In  the  face  of  such  facts  what  becomes  of  the  asser- 
tion that  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  sent  His  Son 
to  help  ignorant  humanity  about  two  thousand  years 
ago — but  never  before?  What  about  the  hundreds  of 
millions  of  human  beings  who  lived  and  died  before  that 
time?  Did  He  care  nothing  for  them?  Did  He  give 
his  attention  to  humanity  for  a  period  of  only  two 
thousand  years  and  neglect  it  for  millions  of  years? 
Two  thousand  years,  compared  to  the  age  of  the  earth, 
is  less  than  an  hour  in  the  ordinary  life  of  a  man.  Does 
anybody  believe  that  God,  in  his  great  compassion, 
sent  just  one  World  Teacher  for  that  brief  period? 
What  would  we  say  of  a  father  who  gave  one  hour  of 
his  whole  life  to  his  child  and  neglected  him  absolutely 


212  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

before  and  after  that?  Countless  millions  of  the  peo- 
ple who  lived  and  died  prior  to  the  coming  of  the  Christ 
were  very  much  like  ourselves.  They  belonged  to 
ancient  civilizations  that  often  surpassed  our  own  in 
many  desirable  characteristics.  They  were  educated  and 
cultured  in  their  time  and  fashion.  They  were  fathers 
and  sons  and  mothers  and  daughters  and  husbands  and 
wives,  with  the  same  kind  of  heart  ties  that  we  have. 
What  of  them?  Were  they  permitted  to  grope  in  the 
moral  wilderness  without  a  Teacher  or  a  ray  of  light? 
Of  course  the  idea  is  preposterous.  If  God  so  loved 
the  world  that  He  sent  his  Son  two  thousand  years 
ago  He  sent  Him,  or  some  predecessor,  very  many  times 
before.  By  the  same  token  He  will  come  again.  The 
only  logical  escape  from  such  a  conclusion  is  in  the 
materialist's  belief  that  He  never  came  at  all. 

All  religions  chrystalize,  become  materialized,  and 
lose  their  spiritual  significance.  That  is  precisely  what 
has  happened  to  the  various  great  religions  of  the  modern 
world,  including  Christianity.  It  is  no  longer  the  dynamic 
thing  in  the  lives  of  the  people  it  once  was.  That's  why 
a  world  war  was  possible.  The  fault  is  not  with  the 
teachings  of  the  Christ.  The  trouble  is  that  the  world  has 
not  lived  by  them.  We  need  a  restatement  of  the  old 
teachings  in  the  terms  of  modern  life  that  shall  again 
make  it  a  living  force  in  the  lives  of  men.  It  is  when  the 
World  Teacher  is  most  needed  that  he  comes ;  and  when 
has  the  need  been  greater  than  now  ?  The  world  war  has 
demonstrated  the  failure  of  so-called  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. We  have  seen  the  highest  type  of  that  civilization 
revert  to  the  law  of  the  jungle,  deliberately  disregard 


ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY  213 

the  usages  of  civilized  warfare,  and  commit  atrocities 
that  would  shame  barbarians.  We  surely  need  no  fur- 
ther proof  that  the  Christian  religion  has  not  accom- 
plished all  that  the  spiritual  hierarchy  had  a  right  to 
hope  for,  and  that  the  coming  of  the  Christ  again  is  a 
necessity. 

But  the  spiritual  hierarchy  sends  its  great  embassa- 
dors only  when  the  time  is  propitious,  only  when  the 
world  is  ready  to  listen.  Perhaps  such  an  event  can 
never  be  predicted  in  terms  of  time,  but  only  in  those  of 
conditions.  When  the  strength  of  the  nations  is  spent, 
when  the  slain  totals  appalling  numbers,  when  few 
homes  of  high  or  low  degree  are  without  their  terrible 
sacrifice,  when  the  heart  of  the  race  is  filled  with  anguish, 
when  famine  and  disease  have  done  their  awful  work, 
and  humanity  fully  realizes  what  the  reaction  from  greed, 
lust,  cruelty  and  revenge  actually  means,  the  world  will 
be  ready  to  listen  as  it  never  listened  before,  and  after 
that  we  may  reasonably  expect  the  Christ  to  again  appear 
to  re-proclaim  the  ancient  truth  in  terms  of  modern  life. 

The  supermen  are  not  myths  nor  figments  of  imagi- 
nation. They  are  as  natural  and  comprehensive  as  hu- 
man beings.  In  the  regular  order  of  evolution  we  shall 
reach  their  level  and  join  their  ranks  while  younger  hu- 
manities shall  attain  our  present  estate.  As  the  super- 
men rose  we,  too,  shall  rise.  Our  past  has  been  evolu- 
tion's night.  Our  present  is  its  dawn.  Our  future 
shall  be  its  perfect  day.  Think  of  that  night  from 
which  we  have  emerged — a  chaos  of  contending  forces, 
a  world  in  which  might  was  the  measure  of  right,  a  civili- 
zation of  scepter  and  sword,  of  baron  and  serf,  of  master 


214  ELEMENTARY  THEOSOPHY 

and  slave.  That,  we  have  left  behind  us.  Think  of  the 
grey  dawn  that  our  civilization  has  reached — the  dawn 
of  a  public  conscience,  of  individual  liberty,  of  collective 
welfare,  of  the  sacredness  of  life,  but  with  armed  force 
still  dominant,  with  war  the  arbiter  of  national  destiny, 
with  industrial  slavery  still  lingering,  with  conflict  be- 
tween the  higher  aspirations  and  the  lower  desires  still 
raging — a  world  of  selfishness  masked  by  civilized  usage, 
a  world  of  veneered  cruelty  and  refined  brutality.  In  all 
that  we  now  live.  But  think  of  the  coming  results  of 
evolution! — an  era  in  which  love  shall  replace  force, 
when  saber  and  cannon  shall  be  unknown,  when  selfish 
desires  shall  be  transmuted  into  noble  service,  when, 
finally,  we  shall  finish  the  painful  period  of  human  evo- 
lution and  join  the  spiritual  hierarchy  to  direct  the 
faltering  steps  of  a  younger  race. 


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